A Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency official holds a mockup of an Achilles tendon in Seoul to explain the recent case where a group of suppliers and doctors were booked on charges of selling unapproved half-sized tissues on Nov. 16, 2023. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Korea Bizwire) –Police said Thursday they had booked a total of 85 people for selling unapproved Achilles tendons to hospitals and taking some 10 billion won (US$7.7 million) in medical care expenses from state health insurance.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said they referred 26 people running the import and supplier companies and six salespeople to prosecution on charges of importing and delivering the unapproved Achilles tendons. They also referred 30 doctors and 22 nurses involved in the case to the prosecution on fraud and other charges, including violating the Safety and Management of Human Tissue Act.
Achilles tendons, which are usually imported from overseas, are used in transplant surgeries in case of rupture in the cruciate ligaments of the knee.
The police launched an investigation into the case in February after the national health insurance provider filed a report and obtained medical reports of the tissue transplant with half-sized Achilles tendons after they raided two offices of the importers.
The police also detected evidence of the medical institutions leaking personal information of the patients to the salespeople, and in one case, the supplier had trimmed the Achilles tendon to fit the patient during the surgery.
The police plan to request the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to improve its management system to prevent the distribution of unapproved products and plan to continue the investigation against doctors connected to the case.
The suppliers received 1.48 million won as medical care benefits from the National Health Insurance Service in case a hospital uses the complete Achilles tendon in the surgery.
The companies are accused of importing 6,770 half-sized Achilles tendons, deceiving them to be complete ones approved by the food and drug safety ministry, and supplying them to some 400 hospitals nationwide from 2012 through 2019.
The police suspect the half-cut Achilles tendons, which cost 520,000 won to import, compared with 820,000 won for the complete tissue, were used during the surgeries of some 6,500 patients.
(Yonhap)
