Shannon Klinger to Replace Eric Cornut as Novartis's Ethics Officer
May 03 2016 - 8:30AM
Dow Jones News
Novartis AG's chief ethics and compliance officer, Eric Cornut,
is retiring from his role, according to a company spokesman.
Mr. Cornut—who reported directly to Chief Executive Joe
Jimenez—had been in the post since August 2014, when Novartis
created the position to raise the compliance function to the
highest levels of the company. He will stay on as a special adviser
on government affairs to Mr. Jimenez, the spokesman said.
Shannon Klinger, previously general counsel for Novartis's
generic-drug division, Sandoz, took up the ethics-and-compliance
role on Sunday, though Mr. Cornut, 58, won't step down from his
duties until June 1 to assist with the handover, the spokesman
added. Unlike Mr. Cornut, Ms. Klinger will also head litigation for
Novartis in her new role.
Mr. Cornut's retirement comes at a challenging time for the
company. Novartis is facing allegations by the U.S. Department of
Justice that it engaged in a decadelong kickback scheme in which it
held nearly 80,000 "sham" educational events for doctors to induce
them prescribe its heart drugs. The government has claimed these
events contained "little or no educational content" and were
instead used to funnel kickbacks such as expensive meals to
doctors.
Novartis has said it disagrees with the government's
characterization of its behavior and disputes the allegations.
Last year, Novartis paid $390 million to the Justice Department
to settle allegations that the company induced specialty pharmacies
to boost prescriptions for Novartis drugs by paying kickbacks in
the form of rebates.
In settling, Novartis admitted to a series of facts relating to
its relationship with specialty pharmacies, but neither admitted
nor denied wrongdoing. Mr. Jimenez has said the rebates were
designed to induce specialty pharmacies to ensure that patients
completed a course of medicine.
Mr. Cornut spent his nearly two years in post leading the
development of an integrity and compliance program "that is further
strengthening Novartis's culture, reporting and commercial
relationships around the world," according to the spokesman.
Mr. Cornut's career at the drugmaker began in 1989 at
Ciba-Geigy, which merged with Sandoz in 1996 to form Novartis.
Prior to his current role, he was chief commercial officer,
overseeing affairs such as drug pricing. Before then, he led
Novartis's European pharmaceuticals business.
Write to Denise Roland at Denise.Roland@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 03, 2016 08:15 ET (12:15 GMT)
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