Bahrain: Three jailed for forging Lyrica prescriptions

Cairo: A Bahraini court has sentenced three people to five years in prison on charges of forging hundreds of medical prescriptions, a media report said.

The verdict was issued by the Major Criminal Court against a Bahraini national and two Asians for having forged 404 prescriptions to get Lyrica, a medication used to treat pain caused by nerve damage, according to the Bahraini newspaper Al Watan said.

The court ordered that the two Asian convicts, aged 27 and 37, be deported from Bahrain after serving the jail terms.

The case was uncovered by the National Health Regulatory Authority while checking for pharmacies dealing in large quantities of Lyrica.

One pharmacy was found to have got medical prescriptions allegedly issued by the Interior Ministry that later confirmed that the bulk of medications are offered to its ill employees through its pharmacies.

An investigation revealed that the prescriptions, which carried the Interior Ministry’s approval, had been forged. The three defendants were arrested and put on trial.

In Bahrain, prescriptions are necessary for buying psychotropic medications.