Vetting show

The Medicines Agency under suspicion of influence and favoritism
One of the most important institutions in the health sector is the National Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices, which is responsible for the analysis, control and tracking of medicines on the Albanian market.

But the audit and official reports have revealed shortcomings in the functioning of this institution. "Pharmacovigilance must follow every drug. A drug may be of very high quality at the manufacturer, but transportation, temperature or humidity can lose its quality", says expert Pecnikaj. According to official documents, in 2022, deficiencies were found in public health safety, including the lack of annual programs for drug analysis and the lack of inspections of medical equipment in hospitals and laboratories. According to expert Dasho, these problems need analysis from the way health institutions are run today. "Trying to centralize planning at the ministry creates confusion, where some medications are missing and others expire", said Dr. Erion Dasho.

According to the audit, the Ministry of Health and the Medicines Agency have failed to guarantee a fully reliable system for the safety of medicines. The report of the Supreme State Audit criticizes the weakness of the pharmacovigilance system, i.e. the monitoring of the side effects of medicines.

“This is the role of pharmacovigilance, from the manufacturer to the patient,” says Pecnikaj. Another identified problem is related to the list of reimbursable drugs. Of the hundreds of drugs that appear as the first alternative on the list, many of them were not imported during 2023. In some cases, drugs that appear on the list are not registered according to legal requirements.

This means that on paper they exist as an alternative for patients, but in practice they are not found on the market. Audits have also identified discrepancies in import authorizations and a lack of cooperation between the Medicines Agency and Customs, which increases the risk of medicines entering the market without full verification. Meanwhile, public documents show that the Medicines Agency has made payments for a tender to improve the medicines and equipment system worth around 134 million lek. According to data from the “Spending.al” platform, this contract was signed in 2022.

In this case, questions arise about previous business connections as Sokol Sinani, who was a partner with Ilir Beqaj at the company "Intech +" until August 2013 and in 2017 purchased the shares of the company DATA LOG (formerly DATA-LOGIC), which later turned out to be active.

The question that arises is how companies with low activity or periods of inactivity have managed to win large-value public contracts.

"Some of the concessions have ended up in SPAK and it is no coincidence that we also have a former minister accused of these contracts," says expert Dasho.

Oncologist exposes healthcare concessions

Coping with the disease of the century for patients with tumor diseases is not only related to drugs and their quality, but also to tests.

A person receiving chemotherapy should undergo tests as monitoring assesses their health status and how treatment will continue.

"Now we have a problem with the tests, they don't do the tests for us, go to the director in Durrës, we have nothing to do, I went to the Ministry twice, they say we don't have money," says Nazmiu about the concession of the laboratory for the tests. A patient from the Oncology Department, who fights for his life every day, exposes with facts the alarm that the doctors have raised, the laboratory for the tests does not provide. It is not the first time that the concession of the laboratory for the tests raises concerns.

Currently, all 4 healthcare concessions are under investigation by SPAK, where the sterilization investigations have concluded with former minister Ilir Beqaj being charged with "theft by abuse of office" and "structured criminal group."

In fact, if we were to analyze all the problems that the Albanian healthcare system has, they are related to the funds that go to concession contracts that do not provide service. "The ministry together with the government have the funds, this (prime minister) goes and inaugurates a dog hospital at a time when we are dying on the highway, this is our state, which does not ask about us at all," said Nazmi Picirri.

Outraged, he expresses his disappointment not only with the state, but also with the fact that the services that the state has undertaken to provide are not being provided as per the laboratory concession. "But we have had problems with the tests, we have not been able to go out in the sun. They say go to the family doctor, go get a document there, go to the hospital, which is completely false. They know we are sick. Go do those tests for us! Don't bring us up and down the streets," declares patient Nazmiu.

According to him, both concessions have problems, both the laboratories and the Check-up concessions.

"We have a lot of problems with the analyses, it's not the director's fault here in Durrës, everyone from the Prime Minister to the Ministry of Health has responsibilities," says Nazmiu, seeking support from institutions. The concession for laboratory services in university, regional and municipal hospitals in Albania was won by the company "Laboratory Networks shpk".

The company has several partners, including the Albanian company “Labopharma”, as well as foreign companies such as “AB Laboratory Solutions” from the Netherlands and “Exalab” from France. The procedure for this concession began in 2016, while the contract was signed in 2019 with a 10-year term. This contract is under investigation by SPAK, like other contracts.

In total, the 4 healthcare concession contracts are expected to cost Albanians 41.95 billion lek or 420 million euros by the end of 2026.