13. April 2021 – 19:30 Clock
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Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – Patients who were treated with extended cancer drugs from a Bottrop pharmacy have suffered considerable health disadvantages in some cases. This is the result of a comparative study on the course of the disease in cancer patients, which NRW Minister of Health Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) presented on Tuesday.
The study by the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology (BIPS) in Bremen shows that patients at the “Alte Apotheke Bottrop” require significantly more infusions to treat their disease than patients who were supplied with infusions from other pharmacies Ministry now with.
It is also noticeable that the time to recurrence of tumors (recurrence) in the group “Alte Apotheke Bottrop” was significantly shorter than in the control group. Whether this will be accompanied by a higher death rate in the medium term cannot currently be assessed, it said. In comparison, no differences were found between the comparison groups with regard to the frequency of recurrence of breast cancer or death from blood / lymph gland cancer in the evaluated period.
Years ago, the case of a pharmacist from Bottrop caused a stir across the country. With the arrest of the former owner of the “Alte Apotheke Bottrop” at the end of 2016, it became known that he had been producing and dispensing cancer therapy drugs that contained a reduced amount of active ingredient or no active ingredient for years. The Essen District Court later sentenced the pharmacist to twelve years in prison in the process of one of the biggest medical scandals in recent years. The court was convinced that he had been stretching his patients’ vital medicines for years to finance his luxurious lifestyle. At least 14,500 drugs are said to have been underdosed between 2012 and 2016.
However, the process did not provide any reliable information about the consequences of the underdosed chemotherapy for the patients. As a result of the scandal, the monitoring of the NRW pharmacies was tightened.
“The case of the Bottrop pharmacist is an unbelievable crime that has shaken me deeply. Trust in a proper drug supply was severely damaged by this case,” said Laumann, who commissioned the study after the scandal became known.
Study leader Ulrike Haug from BIPS emphasized that these were the results of the group comparison. “It cannot be concluded from this that the underdosed preparations from the Bottrop pharmacy did not lead to a less favorable course of the disease in any of the affected patients.” However, one should also bear in mind that the longer-term effects have not yet been conclusively assessed.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210413-99-191548 / 2
Source: DPA
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