Corruption, Crime, Estonia, Legislation, Medicine
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Thursday, 18.04.2024, 05:30
Member of Estonia's HIV medication panel arrested on bribe-taking charges
Maimets,
associate professor and head of the chair for infectious diseases at the
University of Tartu, is suspected of taking bribes from several pharmaceutical
companies on repeated occasions in his capacity as member of the Ministry of
Social Affairs' committee on HIV medication, the Aktuaalne Kaamera newscast of ERR said.
Mati Ombler, head of the office for combating corruption
crimes at Estonia's Central Criminal Police, said that staffers from their
office last week detained a member of the committee coordinating the
acquisition of antiretroviral medication as suspect in bribe-taking on repeated
occasions.
"According
to the suspicion, he is suspected of accepting bribes from manufacturers of
medicines and marketing companies over a period of two or three years in order
for the committee to prefer the medicines marketed by these companies,"
Ombler said.
When asked
if the suspect was Matti Maimets, Omber answered in the affirmative.
Kairi Kaldoja, lead prosecutor at the South District
Prosecutor's Office, said that the suspicion deals with episodes allegedly
committed by Maimets as a member of the committee of the Ministry of Social Affairs
as well as of the relevant consilium at the university.
According
to ERR, the alleged bribe-givers are companies that are members of the
Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in Estonia (APME) and include the
Estonian unit of Janssen, pharmaceutical arm of Johnson & Johnson.
This was
confirmed to ERR by the head of the company's Baltic operations, Aki Kasvi.
"We
confirm that the authorities have approached the Estonian office of Janssen in
connection with an ongoing investigation," Kasvi said. He said the company
was altogether cooperating with the authorities but refused to give any details
citing the ongoing investigation.
ERR has
learned that the amount that changed hands as a bribe is at least 70,000 euros.
Investigating
bodies on Monday evening spoke of bribes measuring in the tens of thousands of
euros.
In 2017,
the government increased the budget of HIV and AIDS medication from 10 mln to 15 mln euros. What medicines are bought for that money and from what
companies is decided about by the committee at the Ministry of Social Affairs.