Russian-made homeopathic drugs of questionable quality sold during war – PGO
Law enforcement officers have uncovered a scheme for "shadow" supplies of Russian homeopathic medicines with unconfirmed medicinal properties worth hundreds of millions of hryvnias during a full-scale war: the organizers include the owner of a Russian pharmaceutical holding and the director of a subsidiary from Ukraine, the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) has said.
"The Prosecutor General's Office and the National Police of Ukraine have stopped the activities of an established operation to supply Russian homeopathic medicines to the territory of Ukraine for sale and profit, which were subsequently transferred to representatives of the aggressor state," the PGO said on Telegram on Wednesday.
The PGO said the scheme was organized by a member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and the owner of a large Russian pharmaceutical holding.
"Through controlled persons, in the early 2000s, he created a subsidiary in Ukraine with an almost identical name. After 2014, the holding opened production in a European state adjacent to Russia to circumvent sanctions and cover up supplies. In fact, they only changed the packaging of Russian medicines there - they disguised them as products of European origin. Later, the import of goods was put "on stream," - the prosecutor's office explains.
According to the report, the owner of the Russian holding involved the founder and director of the Ukrainian enterprise, the person responsible for quality control, the manager for registration of medicines and pharmacovigilance, as well as the chief accountant of this enterprise in this transaction.
"Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the pharmaceutical company - the official representative of the Russian holding in Ukraine - has not stopped its work, but instead has intensified measures to disguise its activities and continued to support the economy of the aggressor state," the PGO said. .
Since then over UAH 270 million worth of Russian-origin medicines were sold. Part of the funds, as specified by the Prosecutor General's Office, were transferred to the accounts of the enterprises of the final beneficiary, a citizen of the Russian Federation.
"A number of the medicines were made from rabbit droppings, snake venom and crushed bodies of honey bees. Their medicinal properties have not been confirmed by any international studies, and their use could pose a health threat," the PGO said.
Under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor General's Office, based on the collected evidence, the organizer and all participants in the transaction were notified of suspicion of conducting economic activities in cooperation with an aggressor state, which was committed as part of an organized group (Part 3 of Article 28, Part 4 of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
During searches of offices, transport and their places of residence, more than 40 boxes of documentation for drugs, computer equipment and mobile phones were seized with correspondence between the management of the Ukrainian company and the Russian holding, where the distribution of profits, withdrawal of funds, price coordination, advertising, evasion of sanctions and concealment of the country of origin of the products were discussed.
As part of the investigation, a house with an area of more than 700 sq m, which belongs to the owner of the Russian holding and was used as an office and warehouse for homeopathy.
The PGO said that the issue of canceling registration certificates and state registration for 11 medicines owned by a Ukrainian company has been initiated before the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
The pre-trial investigation is being conducted by the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine with operational support from the Department of Strategic Investigations.