Academician Vukičević: KCUS Management Jeopardised BiH's Participation in Research of a Drug for Bone Regeneration

As the coordinator of the clinical trial project for the new bone regeneration drug Ostegrow, I have been warned that Dr. Ismet Gavrankapetanović continues to be subjected to disgraceful actions by colleagues from the Management, which jeopardises both the safety of stored drug samples and Bosnia and Herzegovina's further participation in this project, said Croatian academician Dr. Slobodan Vukičević, professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Zagreb, commenting on the decision of the KCUS management to dismiss Dr. Ismet Gavrankapetanović from the position of head of the Clinic for Orthopaedics and Traumatology, without offering a single argument for doing so.

Dr. Vukičević said that the clinical trial of the new bone regeneration drug is a multi-year European Union project involving 11 partners from six European countries. He stressed that he regrets that the existing attitude of the Management of the Clinical Centre in Sarajevo towards Dr. Gavrankapetanović and his colleagues will seriously damage the previous partnership with the Clinical Centre in international scientific projects.

"Moreover, in the continuation of the cooperation, we wanted to test the efficacy of the new drug in patients with degenerative changes of the lumbar spine disc in the period 2017-2021, but we will abandon the continuation of the cooperation. Unfortunately, the value of a clinical hospital directly depends on the highest quality clinicians and the international reputation of the institution, which is acquired only through international collaborations and clinical testing of new medical therapies," said Dr. Vukičević.

The persecution of Dr. Gavrankapetanović for unclear and incomprehensible reasons, he added, has caused incalculable damage to the Clinical Centre of the University of Sarajevo, and most of all to patients in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Such score-settling, he believes, no longer exists elsewhere because it is simply prohibited. Heads of clinics are far more important than directors of reputable hospitals.

"The dismissal of one of the best European orthopaedists, Dr. Ismet Gavrankapetanović, from the head of the Clinic for Orthopaedics and Traumatology, and the treatment of him and his colleagues by the Management of the Clinical Centre of the University of Sarajevo represents a first-class scandal for the international academic, scientific and medical community as well," concluded Dr. Vukičević, as reported by the Patria agency.