Sandoz investigation (Novartis): The scandal of hormones prescribed to children

A detailed extract from the investigation of the weekly "Falò" on CSR [Swiss radio and television in Italian] reveals the background of the hormone scandal administered by Italian pediatricians on behalf of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Sandoz.

It was mentioned in October 2012 as an almost unprecedented scandal in Italy, but its epilogue has not been known since.

According to the investigation conducted by the Nas, coordinated by the prosecutors of Bologna and Busto Arsizio and which for the press would have seen 67 doctors from public and private hospitals and 12 scientific informants investigated, the Swiss pharmaceutical group Sandoz would have paid dozens of Italian pediatricians to prescribe some drugs of its production.

Particularly among the medicines prescribed especially to children, some in overdose and quite expensive, there were Omnitrope, a growth hormone that contains the active substance of Somatropin, and Binocrit, a drug that increases the production of red blood cells . Both are used as anabolic and considered doping substances.

The media had talked about a complex investigation by the Italian judiciary and Sandoz's decision to fire twelve employees and executives suspected of having tried to increase sales by resorting to illegal practices.

After the vast media coverage, nothing in Italy, while Swiss TV proves, as always, attentive to the information needs of consumers by telling the details of a story that has assumed not only criminal profiles that are under the magnifying glass of the judiciary investigator, but above all, dramatic human implications, starting from the suffering of the children forced to take on growth hormones and incur the risk of dangerous health consequences.