Finance police on Thursday searched
the offices of the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa), the
authority responsible for drug regulation in the country, as
part of a criminal probe into Swiss pharmaceutical companies
Roche and Novartis for alleged market manipulation and fraud.
The companies are suspected of collusion to hamper use of a
cheap eye drug in favour of a more expensive one.
The alleged cartel promoting Novartis's Lucentis over
Roche's Avastin is believed to have cost Italy's national health
service over 45 million euros in 2012 alone, while future costs
could potentially reach 600 million euros a year.
When news of the probe emerged in March Italian consumer
association Codacons said it would ask the country's audit court
to verify whether Aifa had acted negligently in the affair.
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