Hamburg (dpa) – Hundreds of police officers searched 47 properties in Germany on Tuesday morning on suspicion of accounting fraud involving cancer drugs.
The investigations target 14 suspects, including nine doctors, three pharmacists and two managers of pharmaceutical companies, a spokeswoman for the Hamburg prosecutor’s office said.
Tuesday’s operation, which involved 420 police officers and six prosecutors, was carried out in the states of Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony.
“It is about bribery and corruption in the healthcare sector and accounting fraud, both in connection with the prescription of and billing for cytostatics,” the spokeswoman said.
Cytostatics are used in chemotherapy treatments for cancer.
The potential damages are in the millions of euros, according to the spokeswoman.
The focus was initially on safeguarding evidence. At a pharmacy in the Hamburg city centre, police officers could be seen carrying moving boxes into the premises to remove evidence.
Arrest warrants for the suspects have not yet been issued, the spokeswoman said.
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