Pharma firms tend to negotiate exits when faced with disloyalty from employees, but the Swiss drugmaker Roche has taken swift action in Argentina, dismissing one of its staff amid a judicial probe into alleged corruption at the state disabled affairs agency ANDIS.
News on staff movements at pharma firms are a staple at Pharmabiz, but the latest exit from Roche is particularly notable, coming amid a major judicial probe that’s rocked Argentina.
The Swish drugmaker has dismissed Luciana Ferrari, a physician who graduated from the National University of Tucumán and had been working at Roche as a Healthcare Systems Partner for the past four years. The executive, with extensive experience in the healthcare sector, has been connected to the investigation of alleged bribery at ANDIS, Argentina’s national disability agency. A file contains conversations that allegedly implicate her in the case.
Ferrari’s main workplace is the Bazterrica clinic, where she has practiced as a neurologist for almost 15 years. She also held positions in the public sector, mainly during Mauricio Macri‘s presidency of Argentina. From 2018 to 2020, she served as Director of Medical Services at the ANDIS. Prior to that, she was a medical auditor at the Ministry of Social Development from 2015 to 2018.
Pharmabiz understands that Roche Argentina has decided to terminate her employment even though the case is still ongoing. The company, led in Argentina by María Pía Orihuela, is dismissing her because she breached the company’s code of conduct by concealing information and activities – actions that could damage the corporation’s reputation.
Although on a different scale, the decision is in line with that taken at Pierre Fabre in 2019. The local subsidiary of the French multinational to dismiss its then Trade Marketing Manager Mariana Lavalle due to indications of stock shortages. The company, which was still operating directly in Argentina at the time, filed a criminal complaint and dismissed Lavalle following the results of an internal investigation. See article in Spanish
As a consequence of our coverage of the news, Lavalle filed a criminal case against Pharmabiz claiming to have been defamed by our publication. The claim was, of course, dismissed and Lavalle failed in her objective to force our publication to remove all articles in which she was mentioned in relation to the case.
