Barrister and dentist are spared jail over unlawful drug export
A PROMINENT dentist and his daughter, a qualified barrister and former vice chair of the Employment Appeals Tribunal, have been spared jail sentences for unlawfully exporting unregulated cancer medicine.
Medication was imported from India and relabelled to make it look like it was made in Ireland and the UK before it was exported to countries in the Middle East, Dublin District Court was told.
Taj Accura Pharmaceutical Ltd, incorporated in Ireland in 2011 but no longer trading, and two of its executives, dentist Jim Madden, of Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin 2 and his daughter Orna Madden of Hanover Dock, Hanover Quay, Dublin 2, were each given €1,000 fines yesterday after they pleaded guilty to breaking medicinal regulation laws.
Judge Michael Coghlan said if they had not pleaded guilty and had only been found guilty following a trial he would have considered imposing jail sentences.
All charges against Orna Madden’s sister Emma Madden of the Waterfront, Hanover Quay, Dublin 2 were withdrawn.
Dublin District Court heard their family business exported controversial Indian-made generic cancer treatment products to Middle East countries. They had been re-branded to appear that Ireland and the UK were their countries of origin because the EU, along with the US, had higher quality and testing standards.
Jim Madden and Orna Madden were convicted on charges relating to the sale of suspected falsified products and breaching medicinal product regulations.
They were spared one-year jail sentences after pleading guilty to six counts. The case follows a one-and-a-half year probe by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA). It began after the HPRA received a complaint from the Israeli health ministry.
Judge Coghlan heard Jim Madden had wanted to bring down the cost of cancer medication in Ireland and entered into a partnership with Taj Accura Pharmaceutical in India, which was run by a local politician, and that firm was listed on the Mumbai stock exchange. His daughter Orna joined him in the business as a director. The court heard medicine was brought in to Ireland from India via Istanbul, Turkey.
HPRA enforcement manager Hugo Bonar agreed with prosecution counsel Ronan Kennedy falsified medicines offences related to the identity and history of products. On February 24, 2016 the HPRA received a complaint from the Israeli health ministry and Taj Accura Pharmaceutical Ltd in Ireland became the focus of the investigation. The firm had premises in Sandyford in Dublin and later at Upper Pembroke Street.
Searches were carried out and computers and documentation including invoices were seized.
The charges related to Fluourouracil as well as Afhlan and Melphalan products used in the treatment of colon and breast cancers. The Irish firm was paid €85,000 for Fluourouracil and US$85,000 for Melphalan.
Defence counsel Karl Finnegan said the guilty pleas had avoided a trial and the need for 20 witnesses, some from overseas.
Jim Madden had previously been involved in the setting up of the Whitfield Clinic in Waterford to help people in the south east have better access to vital health care. He was no longer involved in that clinic and there has been a IBRC judgement of €37m against him and his wife and ‘he is left with nothing’, counsel said.
Their barrister added that they were embarrassed and remorseful.
‘Embarrassed and remorseful’