Former Novartis executives cleared of bribery; 15 doctors charged
Four former executives of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis and a former politician were cleared on Monday of bribery and direct complicity in the offense, as part of a probe into allegations that doctors and public officials had accepted kickbacks from the company in a period spanning 2006 to 2015.
Seven years after the investigation started, the Council of Misdemeanor Courts issued a judicial decision stating that Konstantinos Frouzis, the former vice president of Novartis Greece, and Nikos Maniadakis, a former Health Ministry adviser, alongside three executives from Novartis’ parent company, have been acquitted of the charges. The decision determined that no evidence was discovered showing that the ten politicians investigated for passive bribery were involved.
The ten politicians implicated in the case were former New Democracy premier Antonis Samaras, former premier Panagiotis Pikrammenos, former ministers Andreas Lykouretzos, Marios Salmas, Evangelos Venizelos, Georgios Koutroumanis, and Andreas Loverdos, current vice president of New Democracy Adonis Georgiadis, former finance minister and current Bank of Greece Governor Yiannis Stournaras, as well as former European Union Commissioner and minister Dimitris Avramopoulos.
Additionally, under the same resolution, Frouzis, Maniadakis, and the three Novartis executives have also been cleared of bribery of non-political individuals due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
However, the economic prosecutor has pressed charges against 15 doctors for their alleged involvement in passive bribery and money laundering. The investigation indicates that these doctors received financial benefits in exchange for prescribing Novartis medications. The ongoing investigation extends to other healthcare professionals as well.
In June 2020, the US Department of Justice announced that Novartis Hellas, the Greece-based unit of Novartis AG, will pay a 225 million dollars criminal penalty and will enter a deferred prosecution agreement for bribing doctors, hospitals and clinics to prescribe the company drugs.
US authorities said Novartis Hellas conspired from 2012 to 2015 to bribe employees of state-owned hospitals and clinics in Greece to buy more Novartis-branded drugs including Lucentis, which treats a form of age-related vision loss. Novartis said the settlements contain no allegations regarding any bribery of Greek politicians, consistent with its own internal findings.
Since 2015, Novartis has paid out hundreds of millions in settlements and fines as a result of kickback allegations in South Korea, the United States and China.
