By Michael Sauerbier
After five years, the scandal involving counterfeit cancer drugs from Lunapharm is finally coming to court. In 2018, Brandenburg’s Health Minister Diana Golze (47, Left) fell over it.
“The main hearing is expected to begin this year,” Potsdam regional court spokesman Sebastian Hentschke told the BZ in February.
The date has now been set: From Wednesday next week (October 11th), Lunapharm boss Susanne Krautz-Zeitel and the German-Egyptian Mohamed Hussein as well as the Hessian lawyer Günther K. will have to answer before the Potsdam district court for illegal trading in counterfeit cancer drugs. 20 days of negotiations are scheduled until March 6, 2024.
Diana Golze (left) had to leave after the Lunapharm scandal (archive photo) Photo: Britta Pedersen/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
The reproach: The Mahlow company Lunapharm is said to have purchased large quantities of expensive cancer drugs from Hussein’s pharmacy in Greece. These include the drugs “Velcade”, “Neulasta” and “Zytiga”. But the pharmacy did not have a wholesale license. The state health department informed Lunapharm of the trade ban in May 2017.
According to the indictment, Krautz-Zeitel assured the authorities that he would no longer purchase goods from Hussein. Nevertheless, by July 2018 she had imported medicines worth 1.1 million euros from Greece – and resold them at a high price. In order to conceal the origin, the defendants are said to have issued invoices and delivery notes to a wholesale company in Cyprus.
The scandal: Despite numerous tips, the office and ministry did not stop the trade. When the deals were exposed in a TV report at the beginning of July 2018, Golze shifted the responsibility to employees. She only resigned at the end of August 2018 when an audit commission certified her control failure.
A year later, the public prosecutor’s office indicted Hussein and Krautz-Zeitel. The indictment has been languishing in the regional court since 2019. Spokesman Sebastian Hentschke justifies this with the “extensive and complex process”.
The Lunapharm lawyers had tried everything to prevent a trial. Krautz-Zeitel told the BZ at the time: “I didn’t do anything wrong. The EU Medicines Agency (EMA) had no complaints.”
The judges approved the charges in autumn 2022, and the trial will now follow. The defendants face up to ten years in prison for placing counterfeit medication on the market in a particularly serious case.
Golze and her officials escape unpunished. All you have to do is get on the witness stand. After her fall, the ex-minister made it to the board of the Potsdamer Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO), which she had once supported with 365,800 euros. In 2022, Golze applied for the mayor’s office of the city of Rathenow (Havelland). She failed in the runoff election.