Depuy

A Greek court has convicted 13 people in connection with alleged corruption during state hospital purchases from DePuy, a subsidiary of US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson.
The Athens criminal court on Tuesday acquitted another seven people over the same case, in which Greek hospital doctors allegedly took bribes to prescribe DePuy orthopedic products.

An appeals court in Athens has decided to postpone indefinitely the trial of 24 suspects in connection to the sale of orthopedic equipment to Greek hospitals by DePuy, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, between 2000 and 2006.

The judges decided to call off the trial after accepting an argument from the defense that the suspects had not been notified about the trial promptly.

Following six years of extensive investigations by Greek and British authorities, one of the largest scandals of corruption in the field of the Greek National Health System (ESY) will go before the Athens 3-member Court of Appeals, Monday.

An anti-corruption magistrate is to launch an investigation into evidence that appears to show a second orthopedic equipment manufacturer bribed doctors at Greek hospitals to favor their products, costing taxpayers millions of euros.

The military exercise, codenamed “Vector 2014”, is to end later this week and will involve some 1,600 naval personnel, the Romanian Defence Ministry confirmed on Monday.

“The exercise is organized annually and aims at training naval structures for their missions. It was planned around one year ago,” the ministry said.