Novartis (NVS) agreed to pay more than $345 million to resolve criminal charges brought by federal authorities of using various former and existing subsidiaries to bribe health care providers in different countries to boost prescriptions for its medicines. In doing so, the company becomes the latest in a growing number of drug makers to have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The infractions occurred between 2012 and 2016 in South Korea, Vietnam, and Greece, and involved schemes to increase sales of an eye treatment and contact lenses, among other products. The efforts included payments to “key opinion leaders” who were pressured to write prescriptions and subverting clinical trials in order to more readily promote the medicines that were being studied.
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