Several pharmacies in Germany are suspected of illegally reselling a relatively expensive corona drug provided by the state. In Berlin, investigations are underway against the operators of six pharmacies, as a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office said on Monday when asked. According to authorities, investigators in Bavaria are focusing on eight pharmacies. In the capital alone, the public prosecutor’s office assumes damage amounting to three million euros. Meanwhile, the Federal Association of German Pharmacists Associations warned against placing all pharmacies in Germany under general suspicion.
The investigation is about the corona drug Paxlovid, which is intended to protect against a serious course of the disease in the event of an acute corona infection. According to the Bavarian Central Office for Combating Fraud and Corruption in the Health Care System (ZKG) in Nuremberg, the Federal Ministry of Health makes the drug available to pharmacies free of charge for patients. But it may not be resold to third parties, they said. The suspects are said to have not adhered to this requirement. They are therefore suspected of embezzlement and violations of the Medicines Act are also possible.
According to information from WDR, NDR and “Süddeutscher Zeitung”, which had previously reported on this, the Federal Ministry of Health filed criminal charges against pharmacists in more than 25 public prosecutors nationwide in this context. The Federal Ministry of Health initially did not comment on the matter to the German Press Agency.
Investigators searched individual objects as early as December
The eight pharmacies in Bavaria that are being investigated are said to have ordered up to 2,500 packs of the drug, a ZKG press spokesman said. He was initially unable to say on Monday how many of them might have been resold illegally. “We can currently only speculate about the number of packs of Paxlovid that were embezzled.” The investigation is only at the beginning. “One or another investigation could involve damage amounting to millions,” said the spokesman.
Investigators had already searched objects in Upper Bavaria, Middle Franconia, Upper Franconia and Upper Palatinate in mid-December. According to the information, they seized numerous documents. The suspects are presumed innocent.
According to information there, several investigations are also pending at the Frankfurt am Main public prosecutor’s office. There is a “mid-single-digit number” in which the investigations into suspected property crimes and violations of the Medicines Act are ongoing. The public prosecutor’s office did not provide any further information for tactical reasons.
In Berlin, checks revealed that six pharmacies had ordered an unusually large number of packs of the drug, said the spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office. Searches were carried out at the request of the Federal Ministry of Health last year, also with the aim of evaluating business documents. “It is possible that a large part of the drugs were sold abroad,” said the spokesman for the investigative agency. The price per pack is in the mid three-digit range.
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The spokesman for the Federal Association of German Pharmacists Associations, Benjamin Rohrer, explained that the trade or even export of the corona drug belonging to the state was not permitted and that violations could result in criminal prosecution. “We also regularly passed on this clear legal opinion to all pharmacies.” It is assumed that crimes only occurred in a few individual cases.
Paxlovid has been able to be prescribed by doctors since the end of February 2022. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) had high hopes for the drug in combination with vaccinations. However, it can have a number of interactions and must be taken very early in the illness. Paxlovid had been purchased in large quantities by the Federal Ministry of Health; a million packs were to be ready for 2022 alone, as it was said at the time.