Seven People Detained after Raids in Two Oncology Hospitals in Sofia and Blagoevgrad

On 4th of October, anti-mafia teams entered the Hematological Hospital "John Paul" in Sofia and "St. Mina" in Blagoevgrad because of suspicion for abuse of medicines for treatmenet of cancer patients. Investigators checked how many sick people were admiitted to the hopitals, how many medicines were administered for the day and how many were actually used.

The investigators have gathered evidence that the group involved in abuse with cancer drugs has been operating at least since the spring of 2017. The main scheme they worked on was through delivery of requested quantities of medication for infusions of real patients in the two hospitals.

In a briefing in the afternoon o 5th of October, the Specialised Prosecutor's office revealed information on the investigation.

During the searches in the medical establishments, "substitution drugs" have been found and they were given for analysis of the chemical composition and content as they were not among the authorized for use in our country.

Lidiya Manolova, Supervising Prosecutor: The doubts are that they are not original medicines, but medicines that are acquired in a different way.

Original medicines that were not administered to patients were handed over to an intermediary who delivered them to a company that exports them as an official re-export.

The detainees who are about to be accused, include the manager of the private hematology hospital "John Paul", another doctor from this hospital and the pharmacist who ran the pharmacy at the St. Mina Hospital in the city of Blagoevgrad.

At this stage, the Prosecutor's Office refrained from announcing the names of the people detained. The others were intermediaries in the scheme. It turned out that the suspects...