The Bucharest Court of Appeal on Friday (3 March) ordered an end to the criminal proceedings against the two directors of Hexi Pharma in Romania, Flori Dinu and Mihai Leva, who were sentenced in the first instance to three years in prison after judges found that the offences they were accused of – thwarting the fight against disease – were time-barred, Libertatea reports.

Instead, according to Romanian media, the company, which specialises in the production and marketing of disinfectants, is ordered to pay damages of 10.6 million lei to hospitals to which it sold substandard products. The company will also be banned from producing and marketing biocides for five years.

According to the cited source, in March 2017, Hexi Pharma was indicted for committing 340 offences of fraud (seven of which had particularly serious consequences), use of forgery (61 material acts), as well as for improper participation in the offence of thwarting the fight against disease.

The Romanian press reports that the two directors of Hexi Pharma, Flori Dinu (general director) and Mihail Leva (production director), have been charged with forgery of private documents and improper participation in the crime of thwarting the fight against disease. They were sentenced at first instance by the Bucharest Court to 3 years and 3 years and 8 months in prison respectively.

Hexi Pharma owner Dan Condrea died in 2016 after a serious car accident on a road in Ilfov county. The car he was driving crashed into a tree, the impact being so violent that the man lost his life on the spot.

At the end of April 2016, a scandal broke out in Romania’s healthcare system that eventually led to the resignation of the Minister of Health, Patriciu Achimaș-Cadariu. This came after Gazeta Sporturilor and Cătălin Tolontan, the publication’s editor-in-chief, wrote about the fact that the disinfectants produced and marketed by the pharmaceutical company “Hexi Pharma Co” do not meet the requirements or even the information contained on the label, being diluted.

Two weeks after the scandal broke out, Ziarul de Gardă wrote that four Hexi Pharma products are also registered in Moldova. At the time, then Health Minister Ruxanda Glavan said that in 2012 four Hexi Pharma products were registered in the National Register of Biodestructive Products, but had not reached the market in Moldova.