300 GlaxoSmithKline employees named in illegal incentives probe in Italy

In one of the biggest-ever probes of a pharmaceutical company's marketing practices, around 4,400 medical professionals and 300 employees of drug multinational GlaxoSmithKline have been named by Italian police as taking part in an illegal incentives scheme to boost sales of the company's products.

Ending a nearly two-year-long investigation (Marketletter February 24, 2003), the finance police, the Guardia di Finanza, have alleged that the Italian subsidiary of GSK, based in Verona, had spent 228 million euros ($278 million) between 1999 and 2002 on cash, gifts and bribes to doctors and other medical professionals to encourage them to prescribe GSK's drug products.

Italian prosecutors must now decide whether those named, including the former managing director of GSK's Italian subsidiary, Kenneth Dipangrazio, will face charges. Of the 300 GSK employees cited, police said 73 former directors are suspected of "corruption and criminal association" and, if found guilty, some could face up to five years in prison.