So I work for a pharma company that manufacturers the products for other pharma companies to them sell under their name. Typically, when we make a product for a company they send us their BDS (bulk drug substance) material directly from them. They will either manufacture this BDS themselves or purchase it and send it to us. Either directly or from one of their, or a contract, storage site. We do not purchase it ourselves or procure it in any way other than what is necessary to receive it from the client.

So, we have company A. They need to send us some BDS. But they do not have the right authorizations to ship this particular BDS through our country. They are based in the EU. So what we do is, they buy their BDS from a company based in our country, and have it shipped to their facility in the EU. Because this is allowed. What they can’t do is ship it to us for use to then use. So what we do is we BUY the BDS FROM THEM, which allows them to ship it to us, because it’s now in OUR custody. Then we receive it in and they pay us the money back as an additional cost for making the finished product. lmaoooo.

I was part of this plan in my department and I just looked at someone I was working with and go “wait are we laundering BDS?” Then we decided it’s probably best we not say this out loud.