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# Centera, CEO Sentenced Over Unapproved Drugs
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/centera-ceo-sentenced-over-unapproved-drugs/
- Published: 2024-02-05T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T14:22:10.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5156287

Arizona-based Centera Bioscience (doing business as: Nootropics Depot) and CEO **Paul Eftang** were sentenced 2/5 in federal court in Concord,NH for distributing unapproved drugs, including tianeptine, into interstate commerce. Centera Bioscience was sentenced to three years of probation, and Eftang to one year of probation. “The defendants have also paid a $2.4 million forfeiture and surrendered all drugs seized by the FDA and Customs and Border Protection,” a Justice Department [release](https://www.justice.gov/usao-nh/pr/arizona-company-and-ceo-sentenced-illegal-distribution-tianeptine-and-other-drugs-and?ref=fdaweb.com) says.

Centera and Eftang pleaded guilty 10/30/2023\. “The defendants sold tianeptine and other drugs that were not approved by the FDA,” the release says. They imported about $7.4 million worth of raw material for these drugs from China between 4/2017 and 9/2021, including tianeptine, adrafinil, phenibut, and racetams that are pharmaceutical drugs not approved for use in the U.S. Racetams include piracetam, aniracetam, coluracetam, and phenylpiracetam. “The defendants earned approximately $35 million from selling these drugs during that same time period,” Justice says, adding that they “sold the drugs across the United States, and at one point used Mexican intermediaries to ship the products.”