​Beatrice Speteanu, pharmacist and president of the Association of Traditional Pharmacies and Practitioners, draws attention to the fact that oncology drugs sold on the Internet can endanger the lives of patients, since it is not known exactly in what conditions they were stored. The phenomenon of marketing these drugs online has gained momentum, especially at a time when many cancer patients say they struggle to get treatment due to a lack of funding from the system. Ultimately, patients buy them online to be able to continue their treatment, thus paying less for them.

For example, in a pharmacy, the drug Bosulif costs about 13,000 lei, Iclusig – about 24,000 lei, and Jakavi – about 14,000 lei. However, there are medicines that are very difficult to find in pharmacies because they are attractive for the export market, Beatrice Speteanu told News.ro.

Along with cancer ads, insulin pens are sold on the Internet, as well as Ozempic, a type 2 diabetes drug that is effective in regulating blood sugar and has a weight-loss effect. And in their case, the danger is great precisely because it is impossible to specifically know the method of storage or origin.

Beatrice Speteanu claims that this situation has been going on for years and thrives when there is also a crisis in the market. These are drugs that are very hard to find because they are very attractive for the export market as well.

• “But now we’re talking about a situation where patients can sell their treatment online or others who use either option can continue treatment and pay less money for it. Now we don’t know if they are fake because there is a big risk that they are ineffective, so in any case they threaten their treatment and life, or they can be toxic.
• And if we are talking about those that are legally taken from pharmacies, then we do not know the storage conditions, in which conditions they were stored in people’s homes or maybe even in warehouses, we are talking about temperatures above 40 degrees in summer, freezing in winter, humidity – there are a lot of intermediate factors that can be dangerous,” Beatriz Speteanu explained to News.ro.

“At the moment, the state does not pay even for cheap options”

Very expensive oncology cannot reach patients because there are no funds to pay for them. Many pharmacies pay the necessary amounts for patients, getting into a situation of blocking with the supplier.

Beatrice Speteanu says that now the state does not pay even for cheap options, and it is all the more difficult for pharmacies to purchase extremely expensive drugs. However, for now, she says, pharmacists still manage to find solutions for patients, some of whom come to Bucharest from other cities to look for the necessary medicine, but it is not known whether the situation will be the same in a month, she also says Cey.

• “At the moment, the state does not pay even for cheap options, it is very difficult for the pharmacy to purchase them, because we are talking about drugs with a very high cost, where the pharmacy has a fixed, set surcharge of 35 lei, here they are still given with the pharmacy’s money, so that there are payment deadlines that are exceeded, there are fines, we are talking about VAT, which still exceeds this amount, they are difficult to find under normal conditions, they are scarce drugs.
• Now even more, and if we find them, we’re stuck with the supplier.
• I have always warned patients not to go to these resources, no one can prove to them that the drug is original or, if it is original, that it has been stored in proper conditions and cannot endanger their lives.
• We pharmacists talk to every pharmacist in the country, we have patients who send pharmacists from out of town so we can help them. Indeed, there are situations where the treatment is delayed until he finds vital medicines, but at the moment we are still coping, we don’t know if it will be the same in a month,” the president of Beatrice Speteanu also told the News. .ro associations of traditional pharmacies and practitioners.

On October 17, cancer patients and their relatives protested in front of the Government, where they brought 153 bags symbolizing the bodies of people who die of cancer every day in Romania. Cancer patients are unhappy that almost a year after the approval of the National Cancer Plan in Parliament, which would allow cancer patients to receive modern treatment, it is still not working.

Read also:

• “We are tired of dying these days.” Unprecedented protest: Cancer patients took to the streets because Rafila did not implement the Cancer Plan even 8 months after its publication

• Since the cancer patients were standing at the door of the ministry, Rafila decided to avoid them and attend the seminar in Bystrica. The patients did not receive anything concrete after Thursday’s protest

• Stories of cancer patients who came from the other side of the country to protest at the Ministry of Health: “We are too young to die because others are not doing their job”