The Romanian police, together with the National agency for Medicines (ANM) have  started an investigation after counterfeit syringes with serum against hepatitis were found in three drugstores in Romania.

Two of the drugstores are located in Pitesti, while the third one is in Ialomita country, Police sources told local news agency Mediafax.

“We’re talking about the Pegasys medicine. There were found dozens of boxes containing syringes, which are bad fakes,” Mediafax reports, quoting sources from the investigation.

“The serum is actually water mixed with glucose, instead of the solution of active substance peginterferon alfa-2a, while the syringes are made of plastic and have white pistons, although the originals are made of glass with red pistons”.

The Romanian ministry of Health recommends patients using Pegasys to immediately see their doctors if they’ve purchased the medicine in the last two weeks.

The investigation started following complaints received from patients.

Roche Romania, the company that sells the medicine, said it informed the National Agency of Medicine in September about a counterfeit box of Pegasys found in Germany.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com