Trial in Mainz: Did mother and son illegally manufacture medications?

The trial against a mother and her son, accused of manufacturing pharmaceuticals without a permit, was discontinued shortly after it began, with the defendants paying fines. The Mainz Regional Court ruled that the 74-year-old naturopathic practitioner must pay €20,000 for 51 violations of the German Medicines Act, while her 42-year-old son must pay €4,000.

The money is to go to charitable organizations. Specifically, the woman has to pay 10,000 euros each to the Victim-Perpetrator Support Center Rheinhessen and the Mainz Children's Hospice, while the 42-year-old has to pay 4,000 euros to the Mainz Food Bank.

A mother and son, as owners and managing directors of a pharmaceutical company in Bingen, are alleged to have manufactured, stored, and sold pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements made from cell extracts and tissue in laboratories between February 2018 and May 2019, despite having been denied a permit in 2013. Products worth a total of €299,262 were allegedly sold to a facility in Edenkoben that treats, among other things, chronic and allergic conditions. According to the indictment, the efficacy of these medications has not yet been proven.

The presiding judge pointed out that the proceedings had been ongoing for seven years and that the legal situation was partly ambiguous. This would necessitate a lengthy evidentiary hearing, including the involvement of expert witnesses. The company in Bingen is now being liquidated by an insolvency administrator, and seized medications and dietary supplements, which had been manufactured in the laboratories and, according to the indictment, had a total sales value of 3.5 million euros, are being destroyed.