Novartis Hid Risks to Protect Sales, Lawyer Says
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Novartis AG officials hid the health risks of the drugmaker’s bone-strengthening medicines Aredia and Zometa to protect billions of dollars in sales, lawyers for a North Carolina woman said.
Executives of Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis ignored studies showing that some cancer patients taking Aredia and Zometa may suffer irreplaceable jawbone damage, Vernon Glenn, a lawyer for Rita Fussman’s family, told a federal court jury in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The drugs had $1.5 billion in sales in 2009.