Pharmaceutical Corporation Novartis has reached an agreement with the Department of justice and the U.S. securities and exchange Commission to settle bribery investigations. Novartis and its current and former divisions will pay them penalties of $233,9 million and $112,8 million, Ekathimerini.com reports.
According to the US Department of justice, Novartis subsidiaries benefited from bribes that involved medical professionals, hospitals and clinics to prescribe Novartis drugs and use Alcon surgical products. At the same time,to hide the facts of bribes, the reports were forged, FirstWord Pharma reports
In particular, the Hellas division reached an agreement to postpone prosecution for a scheme to bribe health care workers in Greece in 2012-2015, related to the ophthalmic drug Lucentis (ranibizumab). As a result, Hellas agreed to pay $225 million to the us Department of justice.
At the same time, a former Novartis unit called Alcon, which split off in April 2019, reached a separate deferred prosecution agreement with the US justice Department, and it will pay $8,9 million to settle. The company was charged with falsifying documentation for 2011-2014 years in Vietnam to hide the facts of paying bribes to medical professionals to increase sales of artificial optical lenses.
As for the US securities and exchange Commission, Novartis agreed to pay a total of $112,8 million for illegal actions in Greece and Vietnam, as well as South Korea, where the company said the cases are in the last stage of settlement with local authorities.
Earlier, antikorr.media reported that the US State Department will create a position of adviser on fighting corruption in Ukraine. The new specialist will strengthen the capacity of the ” National anti-corruption Bureau (NABU) and other justice bodies.
