A portion of the healthcare budget for 2025 has been channeled into financing a well-established corruption scheme involving the expired medicine company Rejsi Farma and top officials at the Ministry of Health and its branches. Behind Rejsi Farma—documented for expired drugs and smuggling—stands Merita Sheqi, who has strong political and clientelist ties.

Between January and March 2025, health sector “masters” signed 4 tenders worth 14 million euros in favor of Rejsi Farma—without competition, through backroom negotiations, and with winning bids exactly matching the maximum fund limit, despite the existence of cheaper alternative medicines. These elements raise serious suspicions of an organized corruption scheme.

On March 19, 2025, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, Lavdrim Sahitaj, along with Minister Albana Koçiu, jointly awarded Rejsi Farma, owned by Merita Sheqi, a 6.1-million-euro (excluding VAT) tender for supplying QSUT with Daratumumab, 400 mg vials, for 24 months. The fund limit: 610,478,800 lek. The winning bid: 610,478,800 lek. In other words, the difference between the winning bid and the fund limit is zero.

On February 10, 2025, (Sahitaj and Koçiu) executed another deal. They awarded a 5.57-million-euro tender to Merita Sheqi for supplying QSUT and the “Shefqet Ndroqi” Hospital. These tender documents must be seized by SPAK and BKH immediately, as the winning bid exceeded the fund limit—a precedent previously unseen. The winner was pre-selected through backroom dealings, cheaper alternatives were deliberately ignored, and Rejsi Farma’s medicines are suspected to be expired. It is also suspected that one-third of the tender value was divided as bribes among the parties.

This year, it seems that the administration of the Ministry of Health and main hospitals is working solely to “tidy up” the paperwork for Merita Sheqi’s tenders. Also on February 10, 2025, Secretary Lavdrim Sahitaj signed off on another 1-million-euro tender for Merita Sheqi to supply hospitals with Lanadelumab, again without competition and through shady dealings.

On January 1, 2025, before the New Year’s turkey had even settled, Sahitaj began preparing documents to award yet another tender to Sheqi, worth 1.3 million euros, for supplying hospitals with Ravulizumab.

Rejsi Farma: A Warehouse of Expired Drugs

A recent report by the High State Audit Office (KLSH) reveals that the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund, particularly during the leadership of Albana Çela (Adhami) and her superior Ogerta Manastirliu, in collaboration with pharmaceutical warehouses, pharmacy networks, and doctors, have been involved in fraud schemes involving expired drugs, fake prescriptions, and other exploitative tactics.

According to behind-the-scenes information, Rejsi Farma (J91419001U)—a symbol of the pharmaceutical mafia and owned by the couple Merita and Nexhat Sheqi—appears on the list of pharmaceutical depots full of expired drugs, which may be pushed into the market and included in the reimbursement scheme.

During an inspection conducted by the Health Insurance Fund on December 21, 2022, at the Rejsi Farma warehouse, 18 expired medications were found, totaling 12,000 units, with a value of over 400,000 euros.

The expiration dates for these reimbursable medicines had passed over one year earlier.

According to KLSH, for these drugs, no official documentation or report was issued by the competent authorities, nor was the proper procedure followed for their withdrawal from circulation. There was no notification to the Regional Tax Directorate, nor was approval sought from the National Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices, as required by law.

A handwritten report was prepared by the inspection group, lacking photographic evidence of the storage environment or clear labeling of the expired drugs—actions in violation of the law and clearly favorable to Rejsi Farma.

Moreover, the inspection team (Shpend Stajku, Enida Hoxhaj, Evarist Jaku, Bledar Gallushi, and Dorjan Hysi) selected only 55 medicines preferred by Merita Sheqi out of 146 approved in the contract between Rejsi Farma and the Health Insurance Fund.

These actions to cover up the pharma mafia ties of Rejsi Farma are in violation of Chapter III, Point 1 of Regulation No. 3, dated 22.10.2014, on procedures and methods for inspecting pharmaceutical warehouses contracted by the fund.

KLSH concluded that “Failure to document and act on expired medicines in a timely and regulated manner poses risks to the accuracy of the real inventory of reimbursable medicines and opens the door to reinserting expired drugs into circulation, with the intent of reimbursement, at the cost of public health.”

There are strong suspicions that Merita Sheqi, in order to cover up her illegal activity with expired medicines and fake reimbursement claims, paid off Fund Director Albana Çela, who is suspected of splitting the money with her superior Ogerta Manastirliu, who kept Çela in place as a trusted ally for three years.

Merita Sheqi’s Son Lives a Life of Luxury on Publicly Stolen Funds

While Merita Sheqi fills up her bank accounts with public money through shady tenders, her son Rejdi Sheqi flaunts a lifestyle akin to that of a sheikh. Funded by his mother’s schemes, Rejdi parades around in a McLaren worth ~€170,000, a Maybach AMG, Hublot watches, and more.

Insider information reveals that Rejdi Sheqi owns a villa in Rolling Hills, worth hundreds of thousands of euros, with funds coming from Rejsi Farma’s suspicious activities.

Rejdi, funded by his mother’s corrupt enterprise, mingles with oligarchs and spoiled sons of wealthy businessmen.

Not to mention the luxury vacations in exotic places, the lavishly decorated offices, and high-end villas.

Millions of euros generated from drug scams and corruption-flagged tenders have been invested in real estate.

Rejdi Sheqi’s lifestyle is not just an insult to public opinion, funded by the sweat of Albanian taxpayers, but a challenge to SPAK, which, so far, has failed to strike at corruption in the health sector.