Pharmaceutical companies

Straight on the heels of the judiciary's decision to close his case file regarding possible involvement in the Novartis scandal for lack of any evidence, former caretaker PM Panagiotis Pikrammenos has said that the Novartis scandal in Greece was set up by politicians who attempted to exploit real corruption in the pharmaceuticals industry in order to harm their political opponents.

With one of its most prominent MPs, Andreas Loverdos, about to testify as a suspect in the Novartis case if his parliamentary immunity is lifted, the centre-left Movement for Change is charging that the entire affair is a conspiracy staged jointly by SYRIZA and the Karamanlis faction of New Democracy.

It was no surprise that the investigation into the Novartis case has yielded its first results during a pre-election period. Regardless of what one may think about this concurrence, it cannot be denied that the political timing mandates that the investigation be wrapped up as soon as possible. 

After more than 14 months of incriminating leaks, "activism" by ministers in the corridors of the Greek judicial system, mock "trials" in Parliament and public calls for the incarceration of suspects, no charges have been pressed against anyone over the so-called "biggest scandal since the establishment of the Greek state" - the probe into the practices of Swiss drugmaker Novartis.

Opposition New Democracy on Tuesday accused the leftist-led government of fabricating the alleged Novartis bribery scandal to divert the public's attention from the controversial name deal signed last year with North Macedonia.

Greek corruption prosecutors on Monday shelved a large part of the case regarding the alleged bribery scandal involving Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis and 10 senior Greek politicians.

In February, 2018, Alternate Justice Minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos told Parliament that the Novartis scandal is the biggest since the founding of the modern Greek state in 1830, even bigger than the Siemens scandal.

One year later, the Novartis affair is turning into the biggest fiasco for the SYRIZA government.

An internal investigation by Swiss drugmaker Novartis has failed to find any evidence of illicit payments made by the company into the accounts of Greek state officials, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. 

An internal investigation by Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG has failed to find any evidence of illicit payments made by the company into the accounts of Greek state officials, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.