Russian police raided the Moscow offices of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) yesterday and conducted a search. The raid came as part of a Russian police investigation into four pharmaceutical companies; Teva, Novartis, Valenta, and Akrikhin.
A Russian police source said, "The search of the companies' offices by the police is being conducted as part of a most comprehensive investigation of pharmaceutical distributors."
The Russian government subsidizes drugs for low income earners, and in the investigation being carried out by Russian police, it was found that the government's main contracts estimated at $2 billion between 2006 and 2008 were with six large distributors.
Teva confirmed that the Russian police had visited the company's offices as part of their investigations. Teva VP corporate communications Yossi Koren told "Globes," "We're talking about an investigation against an independent distributor in Russia and we were asked to assist as witnesses."
Teva invests over $100 million annually in generic drugs in Russia and has targeted a doubling of sales by 2015.
International companies control 80% of Russia's pharmaceutical market.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 6, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011