The soldiers of the special Market Protection unit and of the Technological Frauds unit in action on the orders of the Roman magistrates who are investigating the alleged anti-competitive agreement with which the two multinationals pushed the more expensive Lucentis in the treatment of macular degeneration instead of Avastin
ROME – Guardia di Finanza in action today in Rome, where the headquarters of theItalian Medicines Agency, in via del Tritone [in the picture]. The soldiers of the special unit for Market Protection and of the Technological Frauds unit of the Gdf acted on the orders of the deputy prosecutor Nello Rossi and the prosecutor Stefano Pesci, the magistrates who are investigating four managers of the multinationals Novartis and Roche, fined by the Antitrust because they are suspected of having created a 'cartel' to encourage the use of a product, the Lucentis, instead of the cheaper Avastin in the treatment of macular degeneration. This is at the expense of the sick, the National Health Service and private insurance.
Four people are under investigation in the investigation, the top management of Roche and Novartis. The charges hypothesized by the investigators are: insider trading, aggravated fraud against the state and intentional disaster. In the same case, the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office investigated Roche and Novartis for criminal association and arson.
At the Aifa headquarters, the financiers acquired documents and resolutions relating to the affair. According to what has been learned, the investigators aim to reconstruct the negotiations for the definition of the price of Avastin and Lucentis from 2009 to today. The search warrant was signed by the prosecutors.
The suspicion of the prosecutors is that there have been artificial maneuvers directed, also through the dissemination of false and tendentious news on the characteristics of the drugs Lucentis and Avastin, to alter the procedures for determining prices by AIFA. Since the prices result from a negotiation between the manufacturers of the drug and AIFA, the search, as a means of finding evidence, is aimed at acquiring and, if necessary, seizing the documents relating to this interlocution.
At the end of May, the
