Greek authorities raid Novartis’ offices after bribery allegations
pharmafile | January 4, 2017 | News story | Medical Communications, Research and Development | Greece, Greek, Novartis, bribery
The investigation into practices by Novartis in its Greek operations has been accelerated after the attempted suicide of a Greek Novartis official on New Year’s Day. The official had been one of the approximately 178 people who had been questioned as part of an investigation, headed by Greek politician Stavros Kontonis, into bribery and corruption allegations against Novartis. The suicide was prevented by police but saw the bribery claims hit the front page again and stirred public interest in the case.
According to sources, prosecutors demanded a search of Novartis’ Greek offices to attain electronic data and documents that were relevant to the case. The allegations suggest that Novartis had bribed doctors and public officials to artificially boost sales of prescriptions and company sales in the country. The case was kicked into motion by allegations appearing in the Greek press suggesting that bribes had been paid to gain influence in the Greek market.
US authorities have also become involved in the case, after investigating Novartis previously in 2014 in a separate case. US officials have been carrying out a two-year long investigation in bribery and corruption within the pharmaceutical industry
“Novartis is committed to the highest standards of ethical business conduct and regulatory compliance in all aspects of its work and takes any allegation of misconduct extremely seriously,” the company said in the statement.
The news is damaging to Novartis as it has suffered from allegations previously in 2016 regarding ‘kickbacks’ in South Korea and Turkey. Novartis were also forced to pay a fine of $25 million over a bribery case in China.
Ben Hargreaves
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