Novartis Insider Sold Shares in Weeks Before Zolgensma Scandal

(Bloomberg) -- A Novartis AG manager sold 925,400 francs ($946,000) of shares weeks before a scandal over data for its Zolgensma gene therapy became public.

The sale on July 19 was made by an executive member of the board of directors or a member of the executive committee, according to a Swiss stock exchange filing.

That was after Novartis had informed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about problematic data for Zolgensma, but before the public became aware, SonntagsZeitung reported earlier on Sunday. A Novartis spokesman quoted in the report said the seller was not in possession of materially relevant information. A company spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg.

The Swiss pharma company is under fire from U.S. lawmakers who say it should have told regulators about data irregularities before the drug’s approval in May, rather than waiting to conclude an internal investigation. The company told the FDA in June that it had discovered the potential manipulation of animal-testing data related to the medication, after the $2.1 million-a-dose treatment had already hit the U.S. market.

Chief Executive Officer Vas Narasimhan said the company could have handled a furor surrounding Zolgensma better. Narasimhan, who became CEO of the pharmaceutical manufacturer last year, made the comment in a company call with 12,000 managers, according to newspaper Schweiz am Wochenende report yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Winters in Zurich at pwinters3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Todd White, Sara Marley

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