The Tokyo District Court sentenced a 65-year-old man to a two-year prison term Thursday for administering lymphocyte to cancer patients without having a doctor's license -- a violation of the Medical Practitioners Law and Pharmaceutical Affairs Law.
In handing down the decision, Judge Kaoru Kanayama said Hironari Suzuki, president of CBS Research Institute, damaged public trust in the medical practice and took advantage of patients' hopes for recovery.
The court gave suspended prison terms to three other defendants for conspiring with Suzuki in violation of the same laws.
Kanayama also fined CBS 72.8 million yen.
According to the court, Suzuki and the three others took blood from 92 patients between January 1997 and September 1998 at a clinic they established in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward, and administered lymphocyte taken from the blood on 279 occasions.
The four also manufactured a lymphocyte drip injection package without a license and sold some 1,000 packages to 119 cancer patients for a total of 70.8 million yen.
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