Novartis Japan faces penalty over drug side effects

Tokyo

JAPANESE health authorities said on Wednesday that they will soon make a decision on a possible penalty against the local unit of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis for failing to report drug side effects.

That followed media reports which said regulators would slap a 15-day suspension order on the firm, meaning the company could not sell most of its drugs during the two-week period - a first for a pharmaceutical firm operating in Japan.