Irish cancer patients paid up to €50k for unauthorised treatments advertised on social media

Tom Tuite

Ten Irish cancer sufferers paid between €30,000 to €50,000 for unauthorised treatments from Lithuania, advertised on Facebook and Instagram, a court has heard.

Healthcare firm Innovita Life Ltd and its directors, Brendan Murphy and Adas Darinskas, entered guilty pleas via their lawyers at Dublin District Court on Monday to unlawfully providing advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs).

Murphy and Darinskas are to be spared possible 12-month jail sentences and criminal records in Ireland after Judge Anthony Halpin ordered them to each pay €4,000 toward prosecution costs and both to donate €1,000 to charity.

He recorded convictions against the company, which was fined €6,000 and also ordered to contribute €4,000 in costs.

The prosecution follows an investigation by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA), Ireland's medicinal watchdog.

Guilty pleas were entered to charges under the Irish Medicines Board Act covering unauthorised advertising and supplying medicine, and failing to keep records for the expensive treatments. Darinskas, who is an immunologist and not a doctor as required under Irish law, faced a charge for prescribing medicine without authorisation.

HPRA solicitor Ronan O'Neill told Judge Halpin that ATMPs involved taking blood from a patient to undergo a process that requires a licence for activities such as supplying medicines that require a prescription and authorisation for advertising such products.

Asked by the judge about the benefit of this, O'Neill explained that it can sometimes, in addition to conventional medicine, be of benefit.

Antigens

The judge heard it involved rejuvenation of the blood to create antigens that can help in certain treatments.

HPRA enforcement officer Alan Smullen gave evidence that in 2023, the authority became aware of the website Innovita.com, which was offering cell treatments for cancer.

The website was offering the service to Irish patients through Facebook and Instagram.

The HPRA identified that Innovita Life Ltd had a registered address at Merrion Square in Dublin 2.

Smullen said the authority visited that address in October 2024 and established that it was merely a service office with a brass plaque for receiving post and communications on the company's behalf.

Innovita Life provided details about its services and the number of patients, and Brendan Murphy, then a director, also provided some information.

Murphy (65), from Dublin, now has an address at Crane Lodge Place, Palm Beach, Sydney, Australia, where he has lived since the 1980s. The court heard that he gave the authority more details on the Irish patients treated.

He had an address in Spain when the company was set up in 2022.

Neither director attended, but Murphy had a legal team in court to represent him, and the HPRA was provided with a letter from the lawyer for Darinskas, of Vytauto 48, Vilnius, Lithuania, and the company indicating they were pleading guilty.

The court heard the investigation uncovered several other patients.

Smullen said there were certain licenses for making, providing, advertising, and supplying ATMPs, as well as for the storage of blood and tissues.

He added that there were heavy regulations on the keeping of documents that must be handed over upon the authority's request.

The enforcement officer said that part of the case against the firm concerned the accountability and traceability of documents.

The court heard the cost of each treatment ranged from €30,000 to €50,000.

Murphy has since resigned, and the company remains listed as active with the Companies Registration Office pending the outcome of the proceedings.

Smullen said that the company in Lithuania was licensed to carry out these activities there, but that did not transfer to this jurisdiction; the HPRA's approval was required to conduct any of these activities in Ireland.

He agreed with counsel for Murphy, Alison Fynes, that he was cooperative and attended the meeting with him. Some of the charges concerning Murphy, who had no prior convictions related to advertising, were removed within hours after the HPRA spoke to him.

Interview

He engaged in a second interview remotely and explained that the treatments were in addition to, as opposed to, traditional treatments, the court heard.

The HPRA officer agreed with counsel that the treatments were not the problem but rather the lack of compliance with the regulations.

The court heard that efforts are being made to wind up the company's Irish operation, and Murphy indicated that no one was harmed from the treatments, which the HPRA accepted.

He also indicated that all patients could have their oncologists in Ireland liaise directly with the Innovita oncologists.

A blood sample taken from one patient in Ireland was the subject of one charge, as it should have been taken in Lithuania. Father of four Murphy accepted that it was not correct, but was done in the ease of the patient.

In all, 10 Irish patients received the treatment, the court heard.

O’Neill said that while Darinskas was a licensed immunologist in Lithuania, the law required him to be a qualified medical doctor in Ireland to perform the treatments here. He added that the accused had apologised in a letter to the court.

The judge noted that both directors were cooperative and none of the patients was adversely affected.

Fynes asked that her client be given credit for his guilty pleas, with the judge agreeing that it spared a lengthy trial of up to three days.

She said Murphy's background was in engineering, and she stressed that he was not involved in the medicinal side of the business. The judge noted that he got involved in developing these treatments as a result of a history of cancer in his family.

Pleading for leniency, counsel stressed that it was a matter of regulation, not an issue with the treatments themselves, and that it was unlikely he would come before the court again.

He also noted that Darinskas had no prior convictions and said he would apply the Probation of Offenders Act, sparing them criminal convictions, if they comply with the costs and charity donation order by December 21st next.