Pharmaceutical companies

Four former executives of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis and a former politician were cleared on Monday of bribery and direct complicity in the offense, as part of a probe into allegations that doctors and public officials had accepted kickbacks from the company in a period spanning 2006 to 2015.

The examination of the witnesses before the special tribunal on the responsibility of ministers ended on Tuesday and will resume on January 23 with the testimony of the former head of the Corruption Prosecutor's Office, Eleni Touloupaki.

Novartis, the Swiss owner of the Ljubljana-based pharmaceutical company Lek, and its Chinese supplier Porton Pharma Solutions, will set up a biotechnological park in Mengeš, central Slovenia. Novartis will lease part of its vacant premises to Porton in what the N1 news portal reports will create 300 new jobs.

Bulgaria has refused to supply the fifth vaccine approved by the European drug regulator against COVID-19 of the American company Novavax, and the decision was made by the caretaker government in August. This became clear from the answers of the Minister of Health Asena Serbezova to the GERB MP Kostadin Angelov (former Minister of Health) during the Friday parliamentary control.

Turkey is the most successful nation in effectively carrying out its vaccination program, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, informing that more than 7.5 million doses of the vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech have been given to the Turkish citizens since the start of the campaign in January.

Multiple members of Greece's judiciary have tested positive for Covid-19 in recent days, Kathimerini has learned. This includes several prominent jurists as well as an unknown number of positive cases that were diagnosed at the Athens Court of First Instance.

Ljubljana – The Swiss pharma giant Novartis continued to invest in its R&D and production capacities in Slovenia through its subsidiaries Lek, Sandoz and Novartis Pharma Services last year. Despite the Covid-19 epidemic, it invested EUR 204 million in the country, show figures presented on Tuesday.

A judicial probe against a former SYRIZA government minister resumes Friday with the deposition of Evangelos Venizelos, deputy prime minister and foreign minister in the conservative-socialist coalition government of 2013-15.

A parliamentary committee examining the handling of the Novartis bribery investigation by the former SYRIZA administration is on Wednesday to hear from ex-alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos who is accused of politically motivated interference in the probe.

Former justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos on Thursday requested a month-long extension to prepare his defense to a parliamentary committee investigating allegations that he sought to influence a judicial probe into the Novartis bribery affair.