Blueprint for Free Speech has announced their Whistleblower Prize winners for 2024, honoring one whistleblower from Europe, German pharmacist Robert Herold, for blowing the whistle on Germany’s “Cancer Cartel.”
In Germany, the provision of Chemotherapy is worth 5 billion Euros every year, accounting for 10% of the total funds paid out by health care insurers. To receive more business, German pharmacists have been known to pay oncologists to receive patients in need of treatment. Cancer doctors approached Herold and his local business in Saxony with such propositions, which he refused multiple times. After trying and failing to get Saxony health insurance providers to investigate his claims about these illegal payments, Herold turned to the media.
In reports to public broadcasters NDR and WDR, he explained how these incentivizing operations run and provided drug price lists that illustrated how Germany pharmacists were inflating the price of life-saving chemotherapy drugs, often doubling their cost. This inflation raises the price of health care for ordinary Germans at a time of general economic hardship, higher inflation rates, and raised cost of living. Year-over-year, Germans are seeing their insurance premiums increase, and the Cancer Cartel is a contributing factor.
Herold’s whistleblower disclosures were fatal to his business. In 2005, chemotherapy treatments accounted for 50% of his business’s income. Since speaking out, he has seen this share fall to just 5%.
By speaking out against the Cancer Cartel, Herold brought public scrutiny to the insidious practice. Blueprint for Free Speech recognizes the personal toll that this took, honoring Herold for both his self-sacrifice and his contributions to the public good.
