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The money has been sequestered from the company's Italian unit
Novartis Farma SpA, suspected of selling medicines to hospitals
at inflated prices as part of a scheme to fraudulently obtain
reimbursement funds from the regional government.
Novartis said in a statement it rejected the "groundless"
accusations of the Milan prosecutors and had behaved with full
transparency.
Finance police conducting the investigation say that nine
private hospitals in Milan took part in the scheme between 2013
and 2018, hurting the finances of the Lombardy region around
Italy's financial capital.
According to the seizure decree, seen by Reuters, the hospitals
were reimbursed in full by the region, omitting to declare that
the real price they paid was lower thanks to credit notes issued
to them by the pharmaceutical companies.
The San Donato group, the company that runs the hospitals,
already paid 10.2 million euros in damages to the Lombardy
authorities in December last year.
The group, contacted by Reuters, did not comment.
Novartis said it was not aware of the economic or accounting
arrangements in place between the hospitals it sells
pharmaceuticals to and the regional governments they deal with.
Mylan Italia, the Italian unit of multinational pharmaceutical
group Mylan <MYL.O>, is also among the companies involved in the
investigation, the document shows.
The company has filed a plea bargain proposal for a fine of
200,000 euros and a confiscation of 1.2 million euros, according
to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
The request has received a green light from the public
prosecutor's office and it will now be up to a judge to decide
whether to accept it, the source added.
Mylan Italia declined immediate comment.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi, editing by Gavin Jones and Mark
Potter)
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