Swedish anti-corruption agents are reportedly investigating pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca's financial ties with the Nobel Prize Foundation. According to reports from Pharmalot and Discover Magazine, the drug maker financially sponsored two of the Nobel Foundation subsidiaries and maintains strong financial ties to decision makers who actually award the Nobel Prize.
Prosecutors are probing whether the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company may possibly have exerted undue influence on this year's Nobel Prize in medicine. The 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to a scientist who discovered the human papilloma virus (HPV). AstraZeneca holds the patents on ingredients in the vaccines used to fight the viruses.
The company has however rejected any suggestion that its influence over the Nobel Foundation was improper.
