NAPOLI (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Italian authorities have seized a shipment of medicines intended for victims of the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the war in Syria, claiming that the producing company violated “Made in Italy” standards, prompting the defense to appeal to the Court of Cassation.
On December 28, the criminal division of the Ravenna Court of Appeal, presided over by Judge Piervittorio Farinella, rejected an appeal request from Advanced Biomedical, a pharmaceutical company based in Cagliari, Sardinia, regarding the release of a shipment of medicines that was primarily destined for Lebanon and would have been shipped and delivered to some humanitarian organizations to assist civilians affected by the war in Syria. It appears there was also an intention to leak part of it to Gaza.
Customs authorities at the port of Ravenna, northeastern Italy, seized a shipment on October 30, 2024, containing over 100,000 bottles of the drug Fortus for sore throat and cough, 120 mg, weighing more than 19 tons and valued at 96,000 euros. Advanced Biomedical was accused of violating “Made in Italy” rules by labeling a product from the Republic of San Marino as “Made in Italy.”
There were suspicions that the product had been packaged in San Marino and ended up being labeled as an Italian product. Tracing the production chain revealed that Fortus is manufactured by Advanced Biomedical, whose legal representative and one of its owners is Hani Al-Ramahi, a Jordanian-Palestinian pharmacist holding Italian citizenship.
Al-Ramahi appealed to the judges, emphasizing that his goal is to ensure these medicines reach war zones for the benefit of the populations that need them to protect themselves from toxic dust generated by bombs, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Before the Court of Appeal in Ravenna, lawyer Luca Sanyo, representing the Sardinian pharmacist, requested the release of the shipment and submitted a statement from consultant Professor Silvio Lavagna, a faculty member at the University of Rome’s School of Pharmacy, who excluded “the possibility that the origin of the active ingredient of the drug is San Marino,” the country where the remaining part of the drug’s production process was carried out.
Lavagna added that the country of origin “for the Fortus drug formulation, which consists of 63.5% Italian-sourced raw materials and excipients, is therefore Italy.”
According to documents provided by the lawyer, Advanced Biomedical assigned the development of the drug to Health Progress, based in Teramo, while limited packaging operations were carried out in San Marino, without affecting the validity of the “Made in Italy” label. In light of the court’s decision to continue the seizure of the pharmaceutical shipment, the defense for the Italian company announced its intention to appeal to the Court of Cassation.
