Crooked Chemists

I have been investigating Terry White Chemists and ChemPro, with reference to the corrupt PA (Princess Alexandra Hospital).

Terry White is a chemist and businessman who established a drug store (as the Americans call them) in the ‘Buranda Centro’, a shopping centre including a Woolworths supermarket and a Target store directly accross the road (Ipswich Road) from the PA Hospital. In a clear conflict of interest Terry White was, for many years, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the PA Hospital and later of Metro South Hospital and Health Service (MSHHS) that includes the PA Hospital as well as the QEII (Queen Elizabeth the Second), Beaudesert and Logan hospitals. This is part of the Masonic network that controls the public and private medical systems in Queensland.

I have several empty boxes that contained Paliperidone injections brought to my house and office by staff of the Metro South Hospital and Health Service (MSHHS). The boxes have labels on them indicating that the full price is $330.00 for the pre-filled injection, which is made in Belgium by the drug company Janssen-Cilag, which is now owned by the American Johnson and Johnson. The needle itself is manufactured in Poland.

Paliperidone, marketed as ‘Invega Sustenna’ is available in one and three monthly injections for the treatment of ‘schizophrenia’. The labels, since 2015, have the names of several different doctors (surnames only) – Dr Schneider, Dr Benson, Dr Parkar, Dr Watt, Dr Taylor but all have the same pharmacist names – Saniel Chand and Jason Tavakol, I decided to check these chemists out and have, I think, uncovered a major scam and evidence of corruption at the highest levels of hospital management as well as the ChemPro and Terry White Chemists.

The Buranda drug store was established as one of several Terry White chemists when the Buranda Centro opened in the 1980s. White has since expanded his franchise to over 200 stores. He was replaced a few years ago as the Chairman of the Board of Metro South by Janine Walker. He also went into politics for a while, running for office with the Queensland Liberal National Party (LNP). There is a clip of him on the Metro South YouTube site from when he still headed the Board. It has had very few views, as is the case with the clips of Janine Walker.

I rang the Buranda ChemPro store last week and asked to speak to Saniel Chand. I was told that he didn’t come in every day, but I could speak to the ‘manager’ Anthony Tang, if I rang back after 9.30 am. I did so and was told by Tang that he is one of three partners in the venture and that they had ‘rebranded’ the store as ‘Chempro’ in 2015. The three partners were, he said, Saniel Chand, Jason Tavakol and himself, but that Chand rarely visited the store and Tavakol never did. It turned out that Chand is based at another drug store called the ‘Kruger Pharmacy’ in another suburb (Redbank) and Tavakol is based at a Terry White chemist store in Wynnum.

I asked why it was that Tang’s name is not on the labels if he is the only one of the three who worked in the Buranda ChemPro. He said there were many reasons, but wouldn’t go into it.

When I researched ChemPro, Chand and Tavakol on the Net I found that Chand was awarded a “multicultural” business award by the corrupt Brisbane Mayor Graham Quirk and that he had migrated to Australia with his rich Indian-Fijian family in 1998. He credited his success to the influence of his grandfathers, one of whom was boss of a sugar cane plantation and the other the boss of a taxi company in Fiji. He was able to buy his first chemist shop when he was only 25, just after graduating in pharmacy from Brisbane’s Griffith University. His Linkedin page mentions the award he got from Quirk and also an alumnus award he got from Griffith. He now owns several stores – the ChemPro YouTube site claims ChemPro owns 80 stores.

I also found that Jason Tavakol was caught selling large quantities of pseudoephedrine (Sudafed) to amphetamine manufacturers in Wynnum. He was reprimanded by the Pharmacy Board and had his license suspended for a month, but the matter was not referred to the police, as it should have been.

Judging by their YouTube and Facebook pages ChemPro and Terry White are making a killing by selling more than drugs under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule (PBS) which they are rorting with the assistance of staff from the PA Hospital and its outpatient clinic at the Woolloongabba Community Health Centre (WCHC). They also sell a range of vitamin and herbal treatments, beauty products and cosmetics, dental products, appliances to measure blood pressure and glucose, and more. They also claim to provide professional advice about health – but it is all about selling their products. Psychological and lifestyle factors in the development of illness and recovery from it are not acknowledged.

They also sell treatments for obesity, one of the common side-effects of Paliperidone and other ‘antipsychotic’ drugs. These drugs block the essential neurotransmitter dopamine and cause a range of adverse effects including obesity, diabetes and other metabolic problems, as well as damage to the nervous system that can be permanent. I raised this matter with Anthony Tang when I spoke to him, but he said they just dispense the drugs that the doctors order and don’t question them. They should. They should also refuse to prescribe the drugs if they are not clinically indicated. But they are not about to bite the hand that feeds them.