#Over 8,000 doses of stolen cancer drugs found dumped in Mexico

More than 8,000 doses of stolen cancer medication were found dumped on the side of a Mexican road, according to reports.

The 27 plastic bags found in the Azcapotzalco section of Mexico City account for about 20 percent of a stash of badly needed chemotherapy drugs pilfered from the pharmaceutical company Novag Infancia on Oct. 4, Mexico News Daily reported.

The discarded drugs, which eyewitnesses said were dumped on the sidewalk by a group of men on Friday, included the cancer-treatment drugs daunorubicin, fluorouracil and cyclophosphamide, which were manufactured by the Argentine company Laboratorio Kemex, the outlet said.

The bags were marked “Property of the Health Sector. Sale is prohibited.”

The theft of the medications came during a global shortage of the potentially life-saving drugs, particularly for children suffering from cancer, according to the Spanish-language newspaper El Universal, which published the original report.

Israel Rivas, the spokesman for a Mexican national group of parents of childhood cancer patients, said 1,700 children with the deadly disease have lost their lives in the Central American nation due to lack of access to the meds, the outlet said.

Rivas said the theft — and ultimate discovery of some of the drugs — was met with skepticism in Mexico, where many parents have long suspected that the government has been hoarding the meds and was behind the incident.

“Would you journalists believe this tale?” he asked.