Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis agrees to a settlement of $ 642 million ($ 570 million) in a lawsuit in the United States. That discloses the United States Department of Justice. Among other things, the company was accused of paying bribes to doctors.
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Part of the arrangement involved the company’s use of three foundations to stall payments from patients who took the multiple sclerosis drug Gilenya and kidney cancer drug Afinitor. Another part of the settlement focused on bribing doctors to prescribe the company’s medicines.
According to the United States Department of Justice, Novartis has spent years trying to persuade doctors with all kinds of rewards to prescribe more medicines from the company. For example, doctors were paid generously for speaking engagements in which the company’s medicines were advertised. According to Justice, the company spent hundreds of millions of dollars on this.
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