Greek Parliament Approves Bribery and Price Fix Inquiry on Novartis -- WSJ
February 23 2018 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Nektaria Stamouli
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (February 23, 2018).
ATHENS -- Greece's parliament will investigate whether senior
political leaders took bribes from Swiss pharmaceutical giant
Novartis AG to fix drug prices and boost its sales to public
hospitals.
Early Thursday, lawmakers voted to investigate 10 current and
previous politicians on allegations including bribery and money
laundering. These include two former prime ministers, Antonis
Samaras and Panagiotis Pikrammenos, as well as the European Union's
current migration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, and Greece's
central bank governor, Yannis Stournaras.
All the officials have denied wrongdoing. Opposition parties
accused the government of stoking the scandal for political
gain.
Earlier this month, Greek anticorruption prosecutors alleged
that Novartis officials paid tens of millions of euros to
politicians and 4,500 doctors in order to fix the price of its
drugs at artificially high prices and build a dominant position in
the country's health market.
Under Greek law, parliament is the only institution that can
investigate politicians and lift their immunity if it finds
evidence of criminal activity. Prosecutors referred their
investigation to parliament this month.
A special parliamentary committee will take up the inquiry. That
committee may ultimately decide to return the investigation to the
judiciary.
According to the prosecutors, the activity occurred between 2006
and 2015, covering the period during which Greece was bailed out
and was living under tight scrutiny by its international creditors.
The country has slashed health-care spending to fix its
finances.
Novartis has said that if any wrongdoing is found it will take
"fast and decisive action and do everything possible to prevent
future misconduct." The company has been cooperating with Greek
authorities and is conducting its own internal probe.
Over the past three years, Novartis has been caught up in
corruption probes in several countries.
Write to Nektaria Stamouli at nektaria.stamouli@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 23, 2018 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
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