They would have significantly inflated the selling prices of marketed drugs, obtaining an undue reimbursement of over one billion euros from the National Health Service. This is the accusation leveled by the Public Prosecutor of Florence against the multinational Bristol Myers Squibb Italia, which allegedly carried out the scam together with the Menarini group. In regards to the company, searches were carried out today by the Gdf.
July 28, 2011 – ANSA
Menarini, the investigation expands
another company defrauded the state
The Florence prosecutor accuses the Italian branch of the multinational Bristol Myers Squibb.
He would have helped Alberto Aleotti defraud the health service and raise the prices of medicines
They would have significantly inflated the selling prices of marketed drugs, obtaining an undue reimbursement of over one billion euros from the National Health Service. This is the accusation leveled by the Public Prosecutor of Florence against the multinational Bristol Myers Squibb Italia, which allegedly carried out the scam together with the Menarini group. In regards to the company, searches were carried out today by the Gdf.
The investigators' hypothesis is that both industrial groups have implemented behavior aimed at obtaining, through a series of artifices and deceptions, the inclusion in the national pharmaceutical handbook of drugs marketed by both Menarini and Bristol Myers Squibb at significantly inflated prices compared to the actual cost.
For the moment, the only suspect is the former CEO Guido Porporati, accused of conspiracy to commit fraud with Alberto Aleotti, owner of Menarini.
The story is connected to the investigation that the Florence prosecutor's office is still carrying out on the Menarini group, in which the top management of the company are being investigated. According to the magistrates, the group, through 'paper companies' whose task was to increase the cost of the active ingredients purchased, had managed to obtain a higher selling price for the drugs than the real price, with a considerable increase in expenditure for the national health service which was to reimburse them.
In this context, Bristol Myers Squibb, as early as 1984, would have granted the Menarini group the non-exclusive license for the packaging and sale in Italy of medicines prepared on the basis of precisely those active ingredients, being aware of the existence of paper mills to increase the price. He would have gained by adjusting the price of his drugs, produced with the same active ingredient as those of Menarini, to those of the Tuscan company.
In addition to the searches in the headquarters of the multinational, the men of the Guardia di Finanza notified the Bms of the decree setting the hearing for the application of precautionary measures, scheduled for 19 September.
The hypothesis of fraud on which the investigators are working does not concern the quality of the drugs but the illicit over-invoicing of the costs incurred by Bms Italia for the purchase of the active ingredients (Pravastatin,
