Cancer drug scandal: German pharmacist goes on trial

November 13, 2017

A court in the western German city of Essen on Monday began the trial of a pharmacist accused of having endangered patients and causing huge financial damage to the health system by mixing thousands of doses of cancer drugs with too few active ingredients.

The 47-year-old man, identified only as Peter S. in accordance with German privacy laws, is facing charges of having violated Germany’s medicinal products law in 61,980 cases between 2012 and 2016.

He is also accused of 27 counts of attempted bodily harm, and fraud.

Read more: German doctor cleared of transplant scandal charges

Defrauding the system

Prosecutors say that the defendant, who worked in the town of Bottrop in Germany’s industrial Ruhr district, claimed the full costs for preparing the medicines from public health insurance companies while skimping on the ingredients. They say he caused the companies some €56 million ($65 million) in financial damage over 59 months.

Thousands of patients in six German states are also thought to have been affected.

The Essen-born man was arrested in November 2016. If found guilty, he could face a prison sentence of up to 10 years and lose his license to practice as a pharmacist.

Patient uncertainty

Ahead of the trial, the health minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where Bottrop is situated, called the suffering of those affected and their loved ones “unbelievably great.”

“Of course, those who are possibly affected by the scandal and want to know if that is the case have a right to find out,” Karl-Josef Laumann said, adding that the City of Bottrop had set up a hotline for patients.

However, under data protection laws, it was not possible to inform those who might be affected and hadn’t yet heard of the scandal, he said, adding that doing so might also cause unnecessary anxiety to those who had received correctly dosed drugs.

The trial is expected to run for 14 days.

Cutting-edge cancer research

Just add oxygen

Depriving tumors of oxygen is one way to reduce their size. Swiss stomach cancer scientists at the UniversitätsSpital Zürich are trying the opposite. After normalizing a tumor’s blood vessels with an ITPP molecule, they then flood it with oxygen. The process amplifies the effects of chemotherapy and other radiation and builds on successful US experiments with mice.

Cutting-edge cancer research

Lemon spritz

One unusual approach uses lemons to halt the spread of liver cancer. Researchers at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum are using the fruit’s aromatic terpene compounds as a “key” to open up cancerous carcinoma cells. The open floodgates cause calcium levels to spike and halts the cells’ ability to spread.

Cutting-edge cancer research

Immunotherapy

But it’s the field of immunotherapy where the research is most exciting. Immunotherapy kickstarts the immune system into attacking cancerous growths. The problem: Our immune systems consider as “safe” roughly 99.9 percent of cancer proteins. Thus, researchers must teach it to turn on those proteins, but without overdoing it and causing an auto-immune response.

Cutting-edge cancer research

Mutated proteins

One method: Vaccines. “The aim is to activate the immune system to specifically recognize mutated [brain tumor] proteins,” says Prof. Dr. med. Michael Platten of the University of Heidelberg’s brain clinic. Platten’s T-cell studies have reduced or eliminated tumors in mice with human-like immune systems. He and his colleagues will begin a Phase I trial with 39 patients this year.

Cutting-edge cancer research

Seven patients

Another tantalizing immunotherapy involves antibodies. Prof. Dr. Helmut Salih and his colleagues at the University of Tübingen used their own antibody treatment on seven patients. Generally, antibodies work by “blocking” good cells from being infected by cancer cells. Though early results showed cancer cells disappearing before quickly returning…

Cutting-edge cancer research

Postcards from France

…one case stands out. Above is Dr. Salih’s “favorite graph,” showing leukemic cells vanishing from a 59-year-old French-national’s body. Salih still receives postcards from the patient’s grateful wife. Further trials are on hold, however, until the Tübingen team obtains regulatory approval for their drug production process.

Cutting-edge cancer research

Success story

Or take 27-year-old Georgios. When lymph nodes in his neck became swollen, he went to a doctor, assuming flu. It was stage-four lung cancer. One blessing: Stage-four status qualified him for a Phase-I trial. He is now cancer free, a cauliflower-sized tumor gone. The immunotherapy remains a secret, as it’s in conjunction with a pharmaceutical firm. But he told DW he much preferred it to chemo.

Cutting-edge cancer research

Hope for cancer patients

Experimental immuno-therapy is often the last hope for terminally ill cancer patients. The novel drugs and procedures are attempted only when traditional therapies have failed – often repeatedly. Doctors and patients can contact the German “Cancer Information Service” (Krebsinformationsdienst) to connect with researchers testing the efficacy of experimental drugs.

Author: Conor Dillon