Sanofi bribery probe looks at Kenya’s pharmaceutical industry

The Kenyan pharmaceutical industry is at the centre of an international probe ordered by a French drug maker, Sanofi, over claims that some of its employees may have paid bribes to secure sale contracts in the country.

Sanofi said it had informed US authorities of allegations of improper payments by its employees to healthcare professionals in East Africa and the Middle East, in the latest of a string of bribery claims embarrassing the pharmaceutical industry.

“The investigation is still ongoing and is expected to take some time given that the allegations date back seven years. At this stage, it is too early to draw conclusions,” Reuters quoted Sanofi as having said, adding it was committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards wherever it does business.

Among the allegations are that Sanofi employees made improper payments to doctors in Kenya and other East African countries by handing out perks encouraging doctors to prescribe Sanofi drugs, the WSJ reported on its website, citing e-mails from a whistleblower.

Sanofi hired a law firm to investigate the claims after it received anonymous allegations that wrongdoing occurred between 2007 and 2012, the Paris-listed company said in a statement late on Monday in reaction to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report.

Sanofi said it had notified the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission of the claims, that it took these seriously and that it would cooperate with any potential review.

Sanofi produces about five billion boxes of medicines per year. Its range of drugs includes medicines for diabetes, oncology, multiple sclerosis and a number of generics. It also produces animal health, human vaccines and drugs for rare diseases.

The allegations follow a string of bribery claims over the past year in the industry that have mainly centred on Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline and its sales practices in China.

GSK was fined Sh43.1 billion ($489 million) by Chinese authorities for bribery last month and is still under investigation by US and British watchdogs. In addition to the high-profile Chinese case, GSK has been accused of corrupt practices in Poland, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.

US authorities offer cash incentives for whistleblowers to report corporate malpractice by awarding them up to 30 per cent of any sum collected if new information provided leads to the recovery of investor money over $1 million (Sh89.3 million).

The scramble for the global pharmaceutical market has intensified in recent years, leading to gross misconduct such as bribery to win deals over rivals.

The bribery claims is set to further muddy waters for the pharmaceutical industry which has also witnessed a sharp rise in the volume of counterfeits in circulation.

Statistics recently released by the World Customs Organisation (WCO) showed medicines now form the bulk of illegal products intercepted by customs officials, signifying the health risks to patients.

Pharmaceutical products are now the most counterfeited even as the agency registered a sharp increase in the number of illegal products intercepted globally following increased surveillance initiatives.

“One of the striking features of 2013 data on counterfeit and piracy is that more than half of the reported intercepts were illicit pharmaceutical products, followed by counterfeit electronic appliances and illicit foodstuffs—all of which threaten consumer health and safety,” the agency said in its Illicit Trade Report 2013.

Kenya is among 15 nations that registered the highest number of interceptions of contrabands over 2013, including illicit pharmaceutical products, statistics showed.