The pharmaceutical company Orifarm is now being punished for transferring money to parliamentary politician Troels Lund Poulsen’s (V) election campaign before the 2019 election.
It writes Politiken, which has uncovered the case, on Tuesday.
The Ethics Board for the Pharmaceutical Industry (Enli) has issued a fine to the company of DKK 95,000.
This is the largest fine in Denmark so far in a case involving party support for politicians.
The pharmaceutical industry has zero tolerance for cash transfers to politicians to ensure that “pressure opportunities between the parties are ruled out”.
Enli’s head of the secretariat believes that the decision and the size of the fine send an unequivocal message.
– It sends a signal that it is unacceptable for pharmaceutical companies to have an economic affiliation with politicians. There is an absolute ban on providing financial support to politicians.
– This decision shows this with a sanction of this size, says secretary Rikke Bækgaard Thomassen to the newspaper.
Neither Orifarm nor Troels Lund Poulsen have violated the party support law, but have broken the pharmaceutical industry’s own rules.
Orifarm is the country’s largest supplier of medicines.
The ethics board decided in April to issue a fine of 125,000 kroner. But Orifarm appealed the decision to the board’s appeals board, which has reduced the fine to DKK 95,000 including legal costs.
The decision also states that another parliamentary candidate received DKK 20,000 from Orifarm. It is not known who.
Source: The Nordic Page