No­var­tis push­es back on chair­man's 'i­nac­cu­rate and in­con­sis­ten­t' com­ments un­der­min­ing bribery set­tle­ment

Look­ing to move on from his com­pa­ny’s trou­bled past, No­var­tis CEO Vas Narasimhan gave the green light to a $628 mil­lion set­tle­ment in Ju­ly to close a long-run­ning DOJ kick­back probe. Less than a year lat­er, some in No­var­tis’ top ranks are al­ready look­ing to rewrite his­to­ry — but the com­pa­ny can’t ex­act­ly walk away from what it al­ready ad­mit­ted in court.

In an un­usu­al state­ment this week, No­var­tis pushed back on com­ments from chair­man Jo­erg Rein­hardt claim­ing that No­var­tis nev­er bribed doc­tors, even though the drug­mak­er ad­mit­ted as much as part of its deal with the agency.

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