October 7, 2014
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Sanofi, headquartered in Paris, informed the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today about allegations of bribery in the Middle East and East Africa. The allegations include Sanofi staffers making improper payments to doctors in Kenya and other East African countries. The company also indicated it has hired the New York-based law firm of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP to investigate the claims.
“Sanofi takes these allegations seriously,” said Dante Beccaria, Sanofi’s global compliance officer, in a statement, “and does not condone wrongdoing by any of our employees.”
This follows the high-profile bribery scandal involving U.K.-based GlaxoSmithKline in China. In September 2014 GSK was fined almost $500 million by a court in southern China over corruption and bribery charges. In addition, the court also sentenced former GSK China general manager Mark Reilly, as well as four other company managers, to prison terms of up to four years, although those sentences are expected to be suspended. Reilly was immediately deported.
Novartis has also had allegations of bribery in China and India.
Sanofi began its own investigations after receiving anonymous allegations of bribery and other wrongdoing between 2007 and 2012. One of the allegations was that Sanofi paid influential medical professionals to attend conferences and presented them with cash and gifts in order to acquire business. Another allegation involved employees of Sanofi Kenya bribing healthcare professionals.
In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Beccaria said, “To guard against such activities, we have robust compliance protocols and strict controls to deter and detect conduct that may breach Sanofi’s policies or violate applicable laws.”
Because Sanofi trades on the New York Stock Exchange, it is subject to the U.S.’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Whistleblower laws also provide the person making the allegations the potential to receive up to 30 percent of the penalty the SEC recovers over $1 million.
The investigation is ongoing. Because some of the allegations are at least seven years old, it may take some time to reach conclusions. It is not the first time Sanofi employees have been accused of bribery. In March of this year two former employees of Sanofi-Aventis were convicted in a German court on bribery charges and the company was fined $39 million. The two staffers had made illegal payments to a consultancy that advised one of Sanofi’s clients, which resulted in the company receiving unfair preference.
