French phar­ma ex­ec says he lied to FDA in at­tempt to steal a No­var­tis weight loss drug

All signs point to a busy year for M&A, as sev­er­al phar­ma chiefs have made clear they’re on the prowl for new sci­ence. How­ev­er, one ex­ec­u­tive took a rather dif­fer­ent ap­proach to build­ing out the pipeline — and he could serve up to five years in prison for it.

Alain Bouaz­iz, a 69-year-old French cit­i­zen and Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates res­i­dent, plead­ed guilty on Fri­day to mak­ing false state­ments to the FDA in an at­tempt to gain con­trol of No­var­tis’ weight loss drug, for­mer­ly mar­ket­ed as Sanorex.

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