Prof. Torello Lotti
Florence, 13 October 2010 – "I suspected I was being used and that as much as possible was looked at proceeds of pharmaceutical companies than to the real needs of patients. I can only have well-founded suspicions that he was used by Professor Lotti and his collaborators to administer dangerous but very 'profitable' therapies, accepting the occurrence of the very serious injuries later found".
It is the very harsh indictment contained in a complaint filed yesterday with the Florence prosecutor's office and to the Nas carabinieri by Marco Lombardi, a former patient of Professor Torello Lotti who, at the age of only 32 and after being treated with biological drugs prescribed by Lotti himself, was struck by a tumor of the lymphatic system. The complaint immediately ended up on the table of the assistant prosecutor Sandro Cutrignelli, who will now order medical-legal checks. The young man, assisted by the lawyer Massimiliano Manzo, had been administered a biological drug which, moreover, among its undesirable effects, has the tumor of the lymphatic system.
"The writer - reads the complaint - has a well-founded fear that he has been given drugs absolutely disproportionate to the therapeutic needs, thus accepting Professor Lotti and his collaborators the risk of very serious injuries such as those reported by the writer, who now finds himself fighting, at the age of 32, with cancer".
It is another blow to Lotti's position, who is already having to deal with a new dispute born following the searches at home and in the studio: the scam against the national health service. The investigators have in fact found two envelopes containing cash attributable to specialist visits carried out on patients in the professional activity exercised 'intramoenia' in the hospital. According to rumors, there is talk of at least three thousand euros - which should have been invoiced for the public structure - collected in just two days of activity. Furthermore, numerous anonymous letters received after the arrests are being examined by the investigators.
These are letters which, due to their content, appear to have been sent by patients, healthcare personnel and informants scientific pharmaceutical industries. As far as the judicial proceeding is concerned, the Pezzuti investigating judge rejected almost all (except two) of the requests for revocation of the ban on practicing entrepreneurship for two months, presented by the lawyers of the managers of the pharmaceutical companies involved in the investigation. Finally, in these hours, the harshness of the order with which the investigating judge Pezzuti denied Lotti's freedom has emerged, considering him still in a position to commit the same crimes of which he is accused: conspiracy, corruption, defrauding the state and forgery. Danger aggravated by the fact, the investigating judge points out, that Lotti, if he had freedom of movement, could come into contact with people interested in a future corruptive exchange. Lotti, in the interrogation, would also have tried to demonstrate that the pharmaceutical companies knew that his promises in the end were not true. Thesis, concludes the investigating judge, denied by the findings of the Nas since many loans have been
