Inventor of Unlicensed Drug Sentenced : Health: Milne Ongley pleads no contest to misdemeanor conspiracy to practice medicine without a license and failing to get a patient’s consent to participate in an experiment.

A medical administrator who developed and sold an unlicensed drug used for muscle treatment has received a suspended sentence of two years in jail and $20,000 fine.

The sentence was handed down Monday after Milne Ongley, 65, pleaded no contest in Municipal Court here to misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to practice medicine without a license and failing to get a patient’s consent to participate in a medical experiment.

Ongley was accused of dispensing a substance called the Ongley Solution--a sterile solution that was not approved by the Food and Drug Administration--at clinics in Newport Beach and San Diego.

Ongley, who could not be reached Wednesday for comment, worked as administrator at the clinics and was not licensed to practice medicine, prosecutors said.

He had been hailed by some physical therapists as an innovator in muscle treatment because of his solution. However, some patients--including collegiate athletes--complained about adverse reactions to the topical solution, prosecutors said.

As a condition of his three years of probation, Ongley is not to practice medicine or act as a medical assistant or have any type of prescription medication or paraphernalia unless he is licensed to do so, Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel J. Hess said.

Ongley also agreed to pay $5,000 to the California Medical Board for the cost of the investigation against him.

Ongley had at first also been charged with grand theft, unlawfully using an unapproved drug and false advertising.

“Our primary objective was to ensure that he not practice medicine at all,” Hess said. “And although the penalty is very light, at least the probation will deter him, and he’ll definitely be punished if he practices medicine in any way.”

Ongley has also been charged with practicing medicine without a license in New Mexico.

In addition to the criminal proceedings, the California attorney general’s office is seeking a permanent Superior Court injunction that would, among other things, bar Ongley from practicing medicine without a license and from acting as a medical assistant.

Ongley’s activities “represent a substantial threat to the public health and safety,” Deputy Atty. Gen. Thomas S. Lazar said.

The state, he said, wants “to put an end to the threat his activities represent.”