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Koçi's 'bomb' explodes in the pharmaceutical market/ Giant fictitious reimbursement scheme in Albania revealed by CFO Pharma and Bioplus

2025-07-14 17:24:00, Denoncim Klodian Tomorri

Koçi's 'bomb' explodes in the pharmaceutical market/ Giant

Earlier this year, employees of an Italian pharmaceutical company accidentally came across the reimbursement figures for medicines in Albania. After a quick look at the data, the managers of Chiesi spa were alarmed by what they saw.

Two of the medicines, for which Chiesi was the exclusive supplier to the Albanian market, turned out to have been reimbursed by the Albanian Health Insurance Fund, in quantities many times larger than the Italian company had supplied. Foster and Trimbow are two medicines used to treat asthma.

Both of these medicines are exclusive products, which means that they have only one supplier on the Albanian market, namely the Italian company Chiesi. Consequently, the reimbursement figures for these medicines by FSDKSH must fully match those sold in Albania by the Italian manufacturing company.

But according to documents obtained by Kapitali, for the period 2021 to the first months of this year, the Mandatory Health Insurance Fund reimbursed about 20 thousand more boxes of the drug Foster pompe than the Italian company supplied and tens of thousands more of the drug Trimbow.

Faced with this scandal, the Italians investigated further to understand who was harming them. Their investigations uncovered a gigantic theft scheme with fictitious reimbursements, which amounted to tens of millions of euros, at the center of which stands the company CFO Pharma, two of its satellite companies, Pharma plus and Medix Albania (now Nedix Albania) as well as two pharmacies called Bioplus and Medigreen owned by the former controller of FSDKSH, Gazmend Aliaj, previously arrested for fictitious reimbursements.

Companies involved

Pharma Plus is a pharmaceutical company founded in 2016 by a person named Agron Shehaj, a citizen born in Fier. Since its founding by Shehaj, the company has changed owners four times. All four people who have sold and bought shares of Pharma Plus are either employees or people connected to CFO Pharma of Nadir Çausholli.

Furthermore, the company’s address is exactly at the headquarters of CFO Pharma, and so is its phone number. Although the current owner of the company on paper is Alba Zylfo, the real owner of Pharma Plus is Nadir Çausholli.

Koçi's 'bomb' explodes in the pharmaceutical market/ Giant

Nadir Çausholli in the photo with Artemisa Sokoli, one of the former owners of Pharma Plus

Medix Albania is a company founded in Tirana in February 2019 and later changed its name to Nedix Albania. However, the company advertises itself as part of CFO Pharma as shown in the photos below and its official address is located at the CFO Pharma headquarters.

Koçi's 'bomb' explodes in the pharmaceutical market/ Giant

Medyx is part of CFO Pharma

Both companies have fallen into the Italian investigation for fictitious sales of their products. More specifically, Pharma Plus has declared an inventory of over 3,200 boxes of Foster and Trimbow, without any purchase of these products. While Medix has declared over 16,000 boxes without making any purchase.

After having fictitiously declared these medications in their inventories, both companies, Pharma Plus and Medix, have also fictitiously sold them to CFO Pharma.

The latter has also fictitiously sold the medications to the Bio Plus and Medigreen pharmacies, owned by Iris Aliaj, Gazmend Aliaj's wife. For these fictitious sales, the pharmacies have received reimbursement from the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund, unjustly stealing citizens' money.

Gazmend Aliaj, owner of Bio PLus and Medigreen pharmacies

Bio Plus and Medigreen pharmacies were at the center of the fictitious reimbursement scandal that erupted in 2019. At the time, the Tirana prosecutor's office arrested Aliaj, but two months later the court eased his position with the measure of mandatory reporting.

FSDKSH involved

The approval of the fictitious inventories of the Pharma Plus and Medyx Albania companies shows that FSDKSH is also involved in the scheme, up to the highest management levels. Kapitali has learned that after the scandal broke, movements have been made in the Fund. But the chances are that this gigantic theft scheme with fictitious reimbursements, which includes many other medications beyond those two of the Italian company, will lead to mass arrests in the highest structures of the Fund, but also in the Ministry of Health.

Koçi's 'bomb' explodes in the pharmaceutical market/ Giant

This scandal is one of the reasons why Edi Rama has been warning in recent days about the government's direct involvement in the import of medicines.

But this seems to be just another move to cover up the massive abuses and the frightening theft of public money in all its forms in the health sector.

Because even the latest scheme discovered by the Italians was made possible precisely by officials from the Ministry of Health, the Health Insurance Fund and the Tax authorities, who approved the fictitious inventories and sales of medicines./ Kapital.al