French prosthesis maker suspected of corruption by Italian justice

While Implants files continue to reveal shortcomings in the control of medical implants, Italian justice is interested in the French manufacturer of orthopedic prostheses, Ceraver, suspected of corruption,
France Inter reports on Wednesday.

In France, Ceraver is already suspected by the courts of having participated in the implantation, without consent and without authorization, of four patients in 2011, but also of having sold
knee and hip prostheses not approved by a European certification body. The lawsuit, which targets the company and its CEO, Daniel Blanquaert,
should begin in September 2019.

Gifts to thank them for "their fidelity to prosthetics"

On the other side of the border, the judiciary is particularly interested in Ceraver Italia, the Italian subsidiary of the manufacturer of orthopedic prostheses. The sales manager and a salesperson are suspected of having paid surgeons to implant implants of the Ceraver brand. After several months of investigation and wiretapping, the investigators of the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian tax police, discovered that several orthopedic surgeons had been bribed.

The surgeons concerned would have received cash, but also with luxury paid trips or meals in large restaurants to thank them for their loyalty. A corruption that ended in 2017 with the arrest of two Ceraver Italia employees and several surgeons in Monza, near Milan. First placed in pre-trial detention, commercial and surgeons were placed under house arrest or suspended from their activities.

A trial in the spring of 2019

And the commercial director and commercial did not take very long to confess and update the system of corruption. "The money came mainly from invoices related to the kilometric and artificially inflated charges that Ceraver in France agreed to pay," reports France Inter. One of the employees of the Italian subsidiary accused the French executives of being aware of the editing, an information disputed by Daniel Blanquaert, the CEO of Ceraver's parent company.

The administrative and financial director and the former managing director of the Italian subsidiary were heard at their request by the Italian courts. Italy also accuses the French company Ceraver of having paid 20,000 euros to an Italian surgeon, hired as a consultant, who had not yet started work. The trial could take place in a few months, spring 2019, but the floor of Monza, he is convinced of the involvement of the three French. The latter denied and explained that the two employees of Ceraver Italia were very independent.

Non-compliant knee prostheses sold to hospitals?