Novo Nordisk subpoenaed in the USA over marketing

16 February 2011

Danish insulin giant Novo Nordisk says it has received a subpoena from the office of the US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts calling for the production of documents regarding potential criminal offences relating to the company's marketing and promotion practices for its diabetes treatments NovoLog (insulin aspart [rDNA origin] injection), Levemir (insulin detemir [rDNA origin] injection) and Victoza (liraglutide).

Novo Nordisk said it will cooperate with the US Attorney in this investigation but, at this time, cannot determine or predict the outcome of this matter or assess the consequences thereof. In addition, the company cannot foresee how long the investigation will take or when it will be able to provide additional information.

Last year, Novo Nordisk was found to have breached UK Code of Practice rules, for promoting Victoza prior to the receipt of its marketing authorization on a number of occasions, making claims and comparisons that were misleading, disguising promotional material and failing to provide information which reflected available evidence (The Pharma Letter December 15, 2010).

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