In an Industry-Wide Shakedown, Teva is Next for Probing

- Written by Michael Leibfried, GlobalData senior analyst for healthcare industry dynamics.

Generics giant Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israeli based company, gave word in its latest quarterly release that it was under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) by paying bribes to government officials in Latin America. The FCPA was put into place to deter large companies with US operations from bribing foreign officials to gain a competitive advantage in attaining business.  The SEC and DOJ consider physicians and other hospital administrators to be foreign officials, which is where pharmaceutical companies appear to be getting into trouble. Teva is the most recent pharmaceutical giant to come under investigation for violations of the FCPA, joined by Johnson & Johnson who was fined $70 million, Pfizer who was fined $60 million, Merck & Co., AstraZeneca, Baxter, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, and GlaxoSmithKline. In fact, 8 of the 10 top drug manufacturers have received notices of investigation.