Polish Health Minister quits over pharma links

Poland's recently-elected government has been tested by the sudden resignation of the Deputy Health Minister after allegations emerged that he might be involved in corrupt payments from drug firms. The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk (Civic Platform), who only took office on November 11 following parliamentary elections in October, accepted the resignation of Boleslaw Piecha (Law and Justice, PiS). The issue is complicated by the fact that the two are members of different coalition parties in the center and center-right government.

Mr Piecha was the subject of local media allegations that he had held private meetings with representatives from pharmaceutical companies to discuss the adoption of new products on the list of state-reimbursed drugs, the UPI news agency reports.

The Polish Dziennik daily newspaper in particular alleged that the disgraced deputy minister had added "an expensive medicine" to the formulary on the same day that he had met with the drug's manufacturer.