A Putnam County company is asking a federal judge to let it drop a Puerto Rican distributor so that it can sell health products in the commonwealth unfettered.
JRS Pharma LP claims that IMCD Puerto Rico Inc. has failed to effectively market its products, in a complaint filed on Dec . 23 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
“JRS cannot run a business in Puerto Rico,” the complaint states, “if it is required to continue its business relationship with IMCD.”
JRS makes pill coatings and inactive ingredients at a manufacturing plant in Patterson.
It is challenging IMCD under Puerto Rico’s Dealers’ Contract Act. Â Law 75, as it is known, is meant to protect commonwealth companies from arbitrary cancellations. An importer, for example, may not cancel a distribution deal unless it can establish “just cause.”
JRS says it notified IMCD in March 2025 that it intended to find a new distributor. IMCD rejected the notice, citing Law 75 but eventually demanded more than $3 million in compensation to stop representing JRS.
JRS was represented by another company until 2016, when IMCD acquired the distributor. That allegedly created a conflict of interest by forcing JRS to compete against other products IMCD promoted.
IMCD recognized the conflict, according to the complaint, and terminated its relationship with JRS. Then JRS hired Sachs Chemical Inc. as its distributor.
IMCD acquired Sachs in 2023, the complaint states, creating the same conflict.
Since then, JRS says, sales have stagnated.
Law 75 requires a distributor to take an active role in the market, according to the complaint. It must purchase and promote products, for example, keep inventory, set prices, maintain facilities, offer services to clients, and assume risk.
JRS claims that IMCD acts merely as a delivery service when customers place orders.
JRS is asking the court to declare that IMCD is not a dealer, within the meaning of Law 75; that it has “just cause” to terminate its relationship with IMCD; and that JRS may conduct business directly with customers or other distributors in Puerto Rico.
IMCD’s managing director, Michelle Ortega, did not reply to an email asking for her responses to the allegations.
