Only one quarter of patients diagnosed with cancer are receiving the recently introduced biological chemotherapy, which is considered safer and more efficient. The revelation comes a year after a major scandal rocked the clinic, with numerous allegations that doctors and staff were stealing the expensive drugs and selling them at the black market, or were blackmailing desperate patients. The cost of the therapy for 2023 was put at 21.5 million EUR.

Despite the increase in provided funds, they were not enough to put all patients whose medical indications indicate the need for this therapy. In 2023, over 54,000 patients were receiving therapy, and only 24 percent of them were receiving the biological therapy, the audit report of the Oncology Clinic in Skopje showed.

The system that is supposed to manage the preparation and administration of the therapy, which cost 160,000 EUR, continues to be out of use. During the scandal, it was claimed that the clinic management is deliberately refusing to put it to use, because it would prevent manipulation with the drugs.