Medical scandal Alte Apotheke Bottrop

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The medical scandal Alte Apotheke Bottrop is a scandal that was uncovered in Bottrop in autumn 2016 . Two employees had voiced the suspicion that cancer drugs ( cytostatics ) were incorrectly declared or sold with too little active ingredient in their employer's pharmacy . In one of the "biggest medical scandals in German history", the pharmacist Peter Stadtmann is said to have violated the Medicines Act in 61980 cases . The Alte Apotheke was a “main pharmacy” that took on regulatory responsibility for cancer therapy and sold medication to patients nationwide.

In July 2018, the pharmacist was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for violating the Medicines Act and fraud .

Whistleblowing

The economist Martin Porwoll and the pharmaceutical-technical assistant Maria-Elisabeth Klein decided to go public with their findings because they feared the destruction of important evidence and they would have had to expect reprisals if they approached their employer, something from the investigating police has been confirmed. Porwoll filed a criminal complaint on the suspicion that his employer, the owner of the Alte Apotheke, “redeclared expired drugs, in particular cytostatics, and diluted / stretched drugs and still sold them at the price of the original.” Maria-Elisabeth Klein informed the criminal investigation department about irregularities in the pharmacy and handed over a drug that had been returned to the police for further examination. After an extensive test, the Paul Ehrlich Institute confirmed that the infusion contained a "pure saline solution" instead of the declared active ingredient.

The two employees of the Alte Apotheke received the Whistleblower Prize of the Association of German Scientists for their whistleblowing together with a third person . The award was made on the basis of the criteria “acceptance of severe disadvantages” and “orientation towards the common good”. Your whistleblowing is an “important contribution to the uncovering of structural grievances in a particularly cost-intensive area of ​​our health care system with an annual turnover of approx. 4 billion euros, which is based on approx. about 1200 oncologists and about 250 cytostatics pharmacies distributed. "

Patient associations criticize the inadequate supervision of pharmacies producing cytostatics, since unannounced controls take place extremely rarely.

Consequences of the suspicion

After a search of the “old pharmacy” on November 29, 2016, these findings led to the arrest warrant for the licensed business owner Peter S. The pharmacy employee Birgit K. later stated that the pharmacy administration had not been able to keep up with the company's growth and was overwhelmed been. There was a "mismatch between the actual and the booked inventory"; a first inventory was chaotic and had to be repeated. The owner S. had not always been able to assert himself against his mother, who was known as the “ruler of the cellar” and who checked the incoming and outgoing goods, and “probably knew the economic situation of the pharmacy”. The employee continued to speak of high discounts and expensive gifts from the owner. The pharmacist's family is said to have skimmed off another part of the remaining assets. In addition, the Correctiv research network should have documents, contracts and powers of attorney that give Peter S.'s parents access to large parts of his assets. The public prosecutor's office was able to secure a total of 56 million euros, with an annual turnover of the pharmacy of around 50 million euros. This money is unlikely to be enough, especially to compensate victims and perpetrators.

The trial against the pharmacist began in November 2017 in front of a chamber specializing in economic crimes. This sparked criticism from the alleged victims, especially since some patients have already died. They wanted to negotiate the case as a joint plaintiff by a jury and justify this by stating that it was about "killing people" and crossing the "threshold to treachery". 4600 patients in six federal states are said to have been harmed. The city of Bottrop has set up a counseling center that is run by two oncologists with a budget of 15,000 euros for a year for the victims of the pharmacy scandal.

The old pharmacy was run by his mother after the defendant was arrested. The public prosecutor's office is investigating the defendant's parents for unauthorized wholesaling of pharmaceuticals and complicity in their son's deeds. The city of Bottrop announced in May 2018 that the mother's operating permit was still being checked. The old pharmacy is renamed by the new owner to the name "City Apotheke". The production of cytotoxic drugs was not resumed.

On July 6, 2018, the Essen District Court sentenced Peter S. to twelve years imprisonment for violating the Medicines Act in almost 14,500 cases and for fraud in 59 cases. In addition, a life-long professional ban was imposed. Both the defense, who sought acquittal, and the prosecution, which was also seeking a conviction of attempted assault, and several co-plaintiffs seeking a conviction of attempted murder, appealed. Only the defendant's appeal was successful, but only to the extent that the Federal Court of Justice reduced the value replacement set by the Regional Court to EUR 13.6 million. Further investigations are ongoing against Peter S. it is about suspicion or initial suspicion of billing fraud and unauthorized sponsorship and about the fact that he kept doctors who had a business relationship with him in the dark about the adulterated drugs.

literature

  • Dieter Deiseroth and Hartmut Graßl (eds.): Whistleblower revelations on cancer drug scams and illegal arms deals. Whistleblower Prize 2017. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-8305-3786-1
  • Eckart Roloff and Karin Henke-Wendt: A generous pharmacist and the multi-million dollar business with extended cancer drugs. In: dies .: Damaged instead of healed. Major German medical and pharmaceutical scandals. Hirzel, Stuttgart 2018, pp. 235-251, ISBN 978-3-7776-2763-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alte Apotheke Bottrop: threats against demonstrators? sat1nrw.de, January 8, 2018
  2. ↑ Rationale of the joint jury of IALANA and VDW for the award of the Whistleblower Prize 2017 to Martin Porwoll and Maria-Elisabeth Klein (both Bottrop) Website of IALANA Deutschland eV - Association for Peace Law - German section of the International Association Of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, November 11, 2017
  3. ↑ Whistleblower Prize Winner (vdw-ev.de)
  4. ↑ a b Medical scandal Unscrupulous business with adulterated cancer drugs. Süddeutsche Zeitung, Online, November 13, 2017
  5. ↑ Alte Apotheke: “Administration was overwhelmed”. Apotheke Adhoc (El Pato - Agency for Communication), January 24, 2018
  6. ↑ Pharmacist scandal: family secured part of the property. WAZ.de, October 12, 2017
  7. ↑ Advice center set up on the pharmacist scandal. Website of the city of Bottrop, accessed on February 25, 2018
  8. ↑ Hinnerk Feldwisch-Drentrup: Public prosecutor investigates parents of cyto-pharmacist Peter S. In: DAZ.online . May 8, 2018 ( deutsche-apotheker-zeitung.de ).
  9. ↑ Closing line: Old pharmacy becomes city pharmacy. apotheke adhoc, June 25, 2018.
  10. ^ LG Essen, judgment of 6 July 2018 - 56 KLs 11/17 - openJur. Retrieved August 4, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Stefan Wette: Verdict: Bottrop pharmacist has to go to prison for twelve years . July 6, 2018 ( waz.de ).
  12. ↑ Wolfram Zbikowski: In the Bottrop pharmacist scandal, the public prosecutor and defense have appealed against the judgment of the Essen regional court . July 10, 2018 ( wdr.de [accessed July 11, 2018]).
  13. ^ Decision of the Federal Court of Justice 4 StR 503/19 of June 10, 2020, juris.bundesgerichtshof.de ; "BGH confirms prison sentence for Bottrop cyto pharmacists" , deutsche-apotheker-zeitung.de July 2, 2020
  14. ↑ Hinnerk Feldwisch-Drentrup: Pharmacist who diluted cancer drugs could have bribed doctors. Die Zeit, April 1, 2019