Bribery claims may bow to pressures from Germany

16 October 2000 00:00  [Source: ICB]

A Portuguese lawyer who is alleging that multinational and domestic pharmaceutical companies have bribed more than 10 000 doctors in Portugal now fears his case will crumble due to political and economic pressure.

The case first surfaced in February 1998 when the Portuguese state said it was investigating eight multinational and domestic pharmaceutical companies - Bayer, Merck, Sharp & Dome, Rhône-Poulenc, Eurolabor, Tecnimed, Atral-Cipan, Roche and Boehringer Ingelheim - all accused of bribing doctors to over-prescribe ethical medicines.

António Garcia Pereira said this week: 'When this business begun, an important figure told me the German government was very concerned. It warned that what was bad for Bayer was bad for Germany and in turn this was bad for the EU and therefore for Portugal'.

The lawyer went on to suggest strong political and business pressure now means the affair is doomed to wither. 'The drug companies have simply told the government if you give us a hard time we will go elsewhere', he said.

Garcia Pereira is acting for Alfredo Pequito, the former medical sales representative and whistleblower who three years ago alleged Bayer had offered inducements to more than 2500 doctors to prescribe its products. He said doctors allegedly accepted travel gifts, other goods and medical congress expenses as rewards.

Bayer said it has run a thorough internal investigation following these claims and says there is absolutely no truth in them, labelling the claims absurd.

The Portuguese national health service picks up more than 60% of the bill for all prescribed medicines and over prescribing is a serious drain on the health budget. Pharmaceutical companies and the monopoly chemist network, complain the state takes up to a year to reimburse them for such medicines.

Pequito claims since 1998 he and his family have lived in fear of their lives and needed heavy police protection. And even so he claims he has been knifed twice and threatened once with an empty pistol. His says his wife has also been harassed.

Garcia Pereira's suspicions seem to be justified, for in September this year the state attorney's office announced that of 448 medical corruption investigations over the past three years involving pharmaceutical laboratories - only one has come to court.

The office said 139 dockets had initially been opened. Many had been dropped in March 1999 amnesty. In others there was insufficient evidence to pursue charges.

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