Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) Wednesday acknowledged making payments to a consultancy owned by Michael Cohen, a lawyer employed by President Donald Trump. The company said it paid $1.2 million over a one-year period to Cohen’s company, Essential Consultants LLC.
In February 2017, Novartis retained Cohen to provide advice about the Trump administration’s healthcare policies, according to a statement provided by Novartis. The pharma determined at its first meeting with Cohen that he was unable to provide relevant advice, but was contractually obligated to make monthly payments for a year, the statement said.
The company denied media reports that the payments were associated with a meeting its CEO, Vasant Narasimhan, attended with Trump at the Davos economic summit in January.
Novartis has spent $25.8 million on lobbying in the past four years, and has provided $530,600 to Democratic campaigns and $465,700 to Republican campaigns for 2016 and 2018 elections.
The full statement is below:
“In February 2017, shortly after the election of President Trump, Novartis entered into a one year agreement with Essential Consultants. With the recent change in administration, Novartis believed that Michael Cohen could advise the company as to how the Trump administration might approach certain US healthcare policy matters, including the Affordable Care Act. The agreement was for a term of one year, and paid Essential Consultants 100,000 USD per month. In March 2017, Novartis had its first meeting with Michael Cohen under this agreement. Following this initial meeting, Novartis determined that Michael Cohen and Essential Consultants would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated related to US healthcare policy matters and the decision was taken not to engage further. As the contract unfortunately could only be terminated for cause, payments continued to be made until the contract expired by its own terms in February 2018.
“The engagement of Essential Consultants predated Vas Narasimhan becoming Novartis CEO and he was in no way involved with this agreement. Contrary to recent media reports, this agreement was also in no way related to the group dinner Dr. Narasimhan had at the World Economic Forum in Davos with President Trump and 15 Europe based industry leaders. Suggestions to the contrary clearly misrepresent the facts and can only be intended to further personal or political agendas as to which Novartis should not be a part.
“In terms of the Special Counsel’s office, Novartis was contacted in November 2017 regarding the company’s agreement with Essential Consultants. Novartis cooperated fully with the Special Counsel’s office and provided all the information requested. Novartis considers this matter closed as to itself and is not aware of any outstanding questions regarding the agreement.”
Neither Essential Consultants nor Cohen has filed a lobbying disclosure report.