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Novartis suspected of corruption

An investigation into bribery is one of the issues facing Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis Keystone

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis is under investigation in South Korea, a spokeswoman for the company told swissinfo.ch on Monday via email.

“We can confirm that the headquarters of Novartis Korea in Seoul were visited by local authorities in relation to an investigation on Feb 22, 2016,” she wrote.

According to media reports, Novartis is suspected of offering bribes to local doctors in the form of rebates for products.

The spokeswoman from the Novartis Media Relations department said that Novartis “is committed to high standards of ethical business conduct and regulatory compliance in all aspects of our work and we take any allegation of misconduct extremely seriously.”

The company is “cooperating fully with the authorities and will continue to support the investigation as requested,” she wrote. “We cannot comment further on this ongoing investigation.”
 

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