A scheme involving the illegal import and sale of unregistered medicines for cancer patients has been uncovered in Zaporizhzhia
In Zaporizhzhia, law enforcement officers have uncovered a scheme involving the illegal import and sale of unregistered medicines, including those used to treat cancer patients. Medical staff and representatives of the pharmaceutical industry are implicated in the scheme.
Operatives from the Strategic Investigations Department in the Zaporizhzhia region, working alongside investigators, established that the channel for supplying medicines from abroad, bypassing established procedures, had been organised by businesspeople in collusion with officials from a medical facility.
The medicines were imported illegally and sold to patients through pharmacies.
According to the investigation, the head of a department at one of the medical institutions systematically received illicit benefits for prescribing specific medicines to patients and directing them to designated pharmacies. The pharmacy manager, in turn, sold medicines not registered in Ukraine to patients.
It was also established that the scheme involved drivers of international routes who transported the medicines from abroad, and businesspeople from the Chernivtsi region who sent these medicines by post to Zaporizhzhia.
Law enforcement officers carried out searches at the suspects’ homes, at a medical facility, a pharmacy and at the premises of other individuals linked to the scheme in Zaporizhzhia, Chernivtsi and the Chernivtsi region. During the investigative operations, documentation, records, mobile phones and other data storage devices were seized.
At present, the head of the hospital department and the pharmacy manager have been notified of the charges against them. Their actions are classified under Part 1 and Part 3 of Article 354 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, depending on their role in the scheme.
The pre-trial investigation is ongoing under the procedural supervision of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Prosecutor’s Office. Law enforcement officers are taking steps to identify other participants.
Specialists from the State Service of Ukraine on Medicines and Drugs Control were involved in the investigation and documentation.
In accordance with Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent until their guilt has been proven in accordance with the law and established by a court conviction.
