Greece gunning for Novartis
12 February 2018: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called on parliament today to investigate bribes allegedly paid to prominent politicians. Greece intends to reclaim billions of euros in reparations from Novartis.
"The government will not give up the claim of funds which Novartis deprived from the Greek people, we will make use of every power afforded by national and international law to recover the money stolen from the Greek people, down to the last euro," Tsipras told Greek lawmakers.
Investigators believe that Novartis overcharged the Greek state for medicines in collaboration with government officials who received kickbacks, bilking taxpayers more tham €3 billion ($3.7 billion).
Novartis has issued a statement saying it was cooperating with the authorities.
Greece's Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis last year said Novartis had likely bribed "thousands" of doctors and civil servants to illegally promote its products.
He also accused Novartis of continuing to sell "overpriced" drugs even after the country was plunged into economic crisis in 2010 and huge cuts were imposed on state budgets, leaving many Greeks without access to affordable medicine.
The case gained attention following a suicide attempt by a Novartis manager in Athens in January 2017. The manager, while standing on the balcony edge from where he was planning to jump, was allegedly wailing that he would not take the fall for the actions of the managers in Basel. Apparently many other Novartis managers in Greece are “singing like canaries.”
Novartis is constantly in the press for various misbehaviors around the world. They were investigated by US authorities in 2014, accused of paying bribes in order to boost sales of some of its medicines, and were later fined only $390 million by the US Justice Department.
In March 2017, Novartis also paid $25 million to settle claims involving its Chinese subsidiary.
There are currently similar investigations ongoing in USA, South Korea, Japan and others concerning alleged bribery, kickbacks and other misbehavior by Novartis.
