Italians Link Glaxo to Illegal Doctor Gifts

February 24, 2003

February 12, 2003

More bad news for GlaxoSmithKline, already the target of a campaign by Canadian

pharmacists and American seniors groups angered by the company's attempts to

stop Americans from buying its drugs at lower prices in Canada (story).

Now the Italians are up in arms. The Finance Police in Veneto have charged 72

Italian doctors and Glaxo employees with bribery and corruption, charging that

Glaxo employees showered cash, gifts and trips on doctors to encourage them to

prescribemore Glaxo products.

Nearly 3,000 more doctors and glaxo employees are under investigation, The

Associated Press reported. Verona's general attorney, Antonino Condorelli, is

investigating more than 13,000 hours of tapped phone calls, flopy disks and

documents.

Italian news agencies said investigators are looking into allegations the drug

giant took doctors on junkets to Berlin, Sharm El Sheik, Damasco and, during the

running of the Grand Prix, Monte Carlo.

Gifts to the doctors included computers, medical apparatus and bottles of

expensive wine, investigators said. The legal limit for such gifts in Italy is

25 euros (US$26).

Glaxo's Italian medical director, Giuseppe Recchia, said he had just learned

about the investigation. But police say their investigation indicates that the

company carefully tracked the gifts to see which ones led to increased

prescriptions.

Those charged could be sentenced to up to five years in jail. But Colonel

Giovani Mainolfi, commander of Veneto's tax police, said jail terms were

unlikely.

" For this type of crime, it doesn't even make sense to ask for imprisonment ...

it is just a matter of professional ethics, " Mainolfi was quoted as saying. " The

generally-held opinion is that these are just petty crimes, but that's the way

to get used to these bad habits. "

Glaxo is the world's second-largest pharamaceutical company. Its U.S.

headquarters are in Philadelphia and Research Trianble Park, N.C.

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