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The Special Investigation Service (STT) announced the established corruption scheme, involving a pharmaceutical company and dozens of doctors in Lithuania, in February 2015.
It soon became clear that it was Valentis Pharma. It was then reported that STT agents detained 11 company employees in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys.
On Wednesday, on the occasion of the finally completed pre-trial investigation, the prosecution announced that of the 138 suspects in the case – 124 doctors, 13 employees and managers of a pharmaceutical company, the accusations were also made against the pharmaceutical company as a legal entity. .
The guilt of all of them will be proven in court.
Photo by Valentis Pharma / Valentis Pharma Pharmaceutical Plant in Vilnius
According to the prosecution, 80 doctors and 5 employees of the pharmaceutical company have already been found guilty, for which procedural decisions have already been taken against them.
The amount of bribes – 74 thousand. euros.
A € 63.71 bribe ran into a famous doctor
On February 15, 2017, the Vilnius City District Court Judge Rasa Paužaitė closed the case of a traumatologist-orthopedist by criminal order.
According to publicly available court material, the orthopedist agreed with the manager of Valentis Pharma that he would recommend the Versan Fluid medical device to patients.
The doctor agreed to receive 55 litas (almost 16 euros) for a dose injected into the joints.
Officials discovered that the doctor had sold the drug to a patient for 500 LTL (€ 144.81), of which there were 220 LTL (€ 63.71), and the detainee fully admitted his guilt.
It is said that the drug treated his mother-in-law
The doctor told officials that he sometimes called the manager of Valentis Pharma to introduce him to the company’s products.
He claimed he had purchased 20 units of Versan Fluid.
The doctor did not deny that he allowed the aforementioned patient to be administered the drug, but claimed that the rest were injected several times into his mother-in-law, from whom no money was taken.
By the way, he did not record these injections in the medical record.
“I am very sorry for the crime,” the court said.
They show that officers overheard phone conversations between a doctor and a pharmacist representative.
During one of those conversations, the doctor admitted that he had “exhausted everything.”
During one of those conversations, the doctor admitted that he had “exhausted everything”, so the manager offered to resort to which the doctor replied that even today.
The court determined that the doctor’s guilt was fully proven and a fine was imposed.
“Girls, so it will be now”
The manager of Valentis Pharma said in a survey that her job was to familiarize doctors and pharmacists with the pharmaceutical company’s products.
“You were instructed to ask if there is potential for this product, and doing so means going to doctors and pharmacists to ask if there are patients who are interested in hyaluronic acid injections.
You learned that there is a demand and that people are interested in these injections. The distribution of the product was carried out in two stages: through pharmacies and through doctors. The distribution through doctors in the Vilnius region was done in such a way that when visiting a doctor, one product is left, sometimes one, sometimes two products, and when the product is injected, it reaches the doctor and withdraws money for the injected product, ”the manager testified.
Girls, now it will be the case that a vial of Versan Fluid sells for LTL 150
She testified that she had heard the following from her direct manager: “Girls, it will now be the case that a vial of Versan Fluid sells for LTL 150, of which LTL 75 (EUR 21.74) will need to be returned to the box of the company and LTL 75 remains in the hands of the doctor for injecting the medicine that we distribute to the patient ”.
According to the manager, if a person buys a vial of the preparation in a pharmacy and the doctor injects it, the doctor gives him the root of the injected preparation and she leaves an envelope with 75 litas.
She called this a reward to the doctor for the injection.
He trusted the doctor, but the preparation did not help
Another case ended in April 2017 with a criminal order, in which, as is clear from the initials, the same manager but another doctor was present.
He received LTL 80.00 (EUR 23.18) for an injected dose of Versan Fluid and LTL 355 (EUR 102.81) for Versan Fluid Uno.
While working in this way, he received a bribe of LTL 12,090 (EUR 3,507.12). According to the record, the defendant did not question the amount of the bribe.
The doctor himself explained to the court that he would recommend or inject the drugs to patients while working at the day surgery center.
The story told to his officials was a little different from the previous one: the manager of Valentis Pharma introduced him to the products and offered to keep some of the money for them.
The defendant said that he had personally sold ampoules in his office and that he had charged the same price to all patients. The doctor said he kept part of the money and gave the other part, as agreed, to a representative of the pharmaceutical company. The accountant said he was not married.
He rated the doctor as a very good specialist, so he had no doubts about his advice to inject the proposed drug.
As a witness, the patient interviewed told authorities when she sought medical attention for knee pain. Her doctor suggested she inject Valentis Pharma for 100 LTL (28.9 Eur).
He considered the doctor to be a very good specialist, so he did not doubt his advice to inject the proposed product. She sought help because she had severe pain in her knee joint and the doctor offered no help other than injecting the medication into the joint, ”the court documents state.
Photo from Fotolia / Knee pain
The woman got the injection but stopped injecting more because it didn’t help at all and the knee pain didn’t go away.
The ampoules were taken from the factory
The manager told the court that he had taken the Versan Fluid vials from the Valentis factory. According to her, the preparation was manufactured in Switzerland and only bottled in Lithuania.
When he took the vials, he signed them with the grocer and, when he sold them, he informed his immediate superior.
The interviewed manager explained that she did not know several things.
For example, when asked how the money was processed in the accounts to pay the doctors who injected Versan Fluid at the pharmacy, the suspect said that she signed the document when she received the money in the accounts, but did not know what the document was. .
Instead of money: a conference abroad
By the way, he testified that doctors were not only paid with money, for example, in May 2015, a doctor was offered to go to a conference in Prague instead of money.
“If the doctor wants, then for the 12 units injected. Versan Fluid Uno will have free tour, hotel, conference registration. Until the end, Dr. Š did. will go to the conference, it was not agreed, but the reservation for the conference for Dr. Š. it was booked in advance, ”according to court documents.
The manager explained to the officials that she did not create the company rules, but did what the line manager said. This manager, according to an employee of the company, sets the rates.
“It was emphasized that this is money for a doctor to work. The money was taken from the accounting in accordance with the payment orders. Who was not specified. Then it settles, returning the roots. The money was usually delivered in an envelope. She herself kept the accounts according to spreadsheets invented by the managers, ”she said in her testimony.
According to the manager, there were times when the doctors called her to find out that they had already consumed the amounts obtained from the preparation and requested a supplement.
Sometimes the preparations were donated, this was canceled for advertising expenses. By the way, he testified that the company had an accountant whose main function was to receive the money collected from the doctors to the managers; there was no need to provide specific names of doctors when donating money.
“The point was the fact itself, both extracted and withdrawn,” he explained.
By the way, the manager testified that her salary did not depend on the number of injections administered to the doctors, she earned 2.7 thousand. LTL salary (almost 782 euros).
He told me how he would work during a meeting, where it was explained that the managers would sell the product to the doctors for 70 LTL, such is their direct job, and then they would charge 70 LTL to the doctors.
“When the prosecutor asked if it cost the patient 150 LTL, the suspect replied that it was that the doctor gave the patient a visit, so the price was 150 LTL directly to the patient and 70 LTL to the doctor.” points to the file.
An employee of a pharmaceutical company assured the court that he believed that everything he was doing was legal.
When the prosecutor asked her how she perceived her actions when she took the envelopes with the money to the doctor, the suspect replied that it was her direct duty, tried not to enter and received her salary through the bank.
Operations suspended in the regions
Valentis Pharma, which suffered a severe blow to its reputation, announced in March 2015 that it was suspending the activities of its regional representatives in Lithuania.
“Due to the procedural solutions adapted for our colleagues, we are forced to suspend activities in the regions indefinitely. We have always been and will continue to be open to all state institutions, regardless of the losses suffered. From now on, all The activities of the company will be carried out from the central office in Kaunas ”, the then director of the company Vaidotas Deveikis explained in a statement.
15 minutes Valentis Pharma management asked for a comment on Wednesday, but did not receive it.
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