Sub-standard disinfectants, failing to meet the required performances, were spotted in 30 Romanian hospitals, health minister Sorina Pintea announced on March 19.

The disinfectants have already been withdrawn and are no longer used, she added. “It seems that we were not taken seriously by some producers or importers,” she said, Mediafax reported.

On the same day, the Romanian Police announced that it conducted searches at the headquarters of companies producing, importing and marketing biocidal products and the homes of their owners/managers. The investigators were looking to gather evidence to support charges of document forgery, prevention of disease control, and marketing of altered products.

Judicial sources told Mediafax that Police searches target Al Carina company, the second largest company on the local disinfectants market, which has allegedly delivered highly diluted disinfectant to hospitals.

One of the firms searched by Police told Mediafax that it held all the necessary certifications required for its products. The unnamed representatives of the firm said that most likely the Ministry “has other interests” with this investigation. The Romanian testing center at Iasi, used by the ministry, is not certified while the company has relied on testing the products in certified test centers in Germany, the representatives of the same company added.

The new investigation comes just two months after a Romanian court ordered jail sentences against the managers of Hexi Pharma, a company that was found guilty of delivering diluted disinfectants to public hospitals in Romania.

The Hexi Pharma case broke after a journalistic investigation in early-2016.

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editor@romania-insider.com