Japan’s Health Ministry on Thursday filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors against Novartis Pharma KK over alleged exaggerated advertising for a popular blood pressure drug.

The local arm of the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG apologized on its website “for causing trouble and concern” over the advertising. The company said it “took the situation extremely seriously and will continue to cooperate fully with authorities.” Novartis in Tokyo used clinical studies of the drug, Diovan, by two Japanese universities that contained false data.

The ministry said it suspects Novartis continued to use ads citing the studies even after they became aware that clinical data in them had been manipulated.

Novartis has conceded employee involvement in the flawed research.

However, the drug-maker has claimed it was not aware of the false data in the studies. It also said clinical trials in other countries showed similar results.

Related Topics