Marian Vanghelie
© Reuters Former mayor of the fifth district Marian Vanghelie is escorted outside his office as Romania's corruption scandal deepens
Thousands of Romanians were used as unwitting guinea pigs by psychiatrists to test drugs, an investigation by Romanian prosecutors has revealed.

Digi24, a Romanian news service, put the number of victims at around 3,000 while prosecutors reported they had detained 50 psychiatrists allegedly involved in the clandestine trials that apparently left some people in hospital.

Investigators and police have now searched 31 hospitals and clinics suspected of involvement in the unauthorised trial, and the number is expected to rise.

The scandal is the latest in a series of hammer blows to the beleaguered Romanian health service that has shredded its reputation and credibility.

Earlier this week Romania was left short of cancer specialists after anti-corruption agents detained 77 of them, a quarter of the country's total, on suspicion of accepting bribes and a free holiday in India in return for prescribing certain drugs.

Marian Vanghelie
© ReutersThe former mayor has been embroiled in the widening investigation.
The country has also been shocked to learn that hospital managers bought diluted disinfectant, despite the risk it posed to staff and patient health, from a pharmaceutical company in return for bribes.

This scandal has also been muddied by suspicions that Romania's intelligence services may have had a hand in the sudden demise of Dan Condrea, the pharmaceutical company's owner who died in a car crash just as the story broke.

The 50 medical staff detained this week in the guinea pig scandal face charges of bribery, abuse of office and the forgery of private documents.

The trials in Romania should have been a legitimate part of an international testing programme organised by unnamed international pharmaceutical companies.

But it appears the accused in Romania failed to inform patients they were being given experimental drugs, and inflated the numbers of people eligible for testing in order to get more money from the programme.

Prosecutors revealed the psychiatrists had forged medical records and patient signatures on documents stating they had agreed to the testing. It is also suspected the medical staff concocted a wealth of other bogus information such as the number of patient visits and test results as part of their efforts to fleece the testing programme.