Novartis under investigation in Greece for bribery

8 years ago - Published in Finance, Fiscal & Legal

Greece's parliament on Wednesday voted to open an investigation into alleged health scandals going back two decades, involving bribes and inflated prices for medical equipment and medicine. A broad majority of 187 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament approved a government proposal to look into suspected mismanagement between 1997 and 2014.

"Everything must be investigated… to clear up whether the public interest was upheld," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the chamber. For years, public (funds) were pillaged, hurting social security funds and benefiting powerful interests," the PM said.

Wednesday's move came as Greek magistrates are stepping up an investigation into claims of widespread bribery by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis.

Greek Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis last week told media a “great number” of the country’s officials and doctors were involved in the scheme “to promote drugs in an illegal and anti-scientific manner,” according to Medical Xpress. From what he’s seen, Kontonis said, “it must be thousands who were directly bribed from Switzerland,” the report says.

"National health service doctors and state officials were bribed to promote drugs in an illegal and anti-scientific manner," Kontonis said.

The Swiss pharmaceutical giant has also been investigated by American and Chinese authorities: in US it was accused of paying bribes in order to boost sales of some of its medicines, and was later fined $390 million (€366 mln) by the US Justice Department. In March, Novartis also paid $25 million (€22.4 mln) to settle claims involving its Chinese subsidiary.

The case gained attention following a suicide attempt in Athens on New Year's Day, by a Novartis manager. That attempt was thwarted by police and according to the judicial source, the manager was one of those questioned over alleged corruption.
In January, Novartis issued a statement saying it was "aware of the media reports about our business practises" in Greece and that it was seeking more information and was cooperating with the authorities.

But the drugmaker is not alone in this realm. Peers including GlaxoSmithKline, Teva and AstraZeneca have each paid millions in recent years to settle bribery allegations in countries around the world.