The Covid season is now a thing of the past in Diasorin’s accounts – (21 million revenues out of a total of 290 in the first quarter of this year, -78% over the first three months of 2022, approximately 60 million revenues expected at the end of the year – but the administrative justice forces the Saluggia-based company to turn the clock back to the pandemic period, with a fine of 100 thousand euros to the company, to which is added a similar pecuniary measure, of 20 thousand euros, against themanaging director, Carlo Rosa, for which the temporary disqualification from his role in the company will also be applied. This was communicated by DiaSorin itself, referring to the Consob decision, applied following a resolution of last February 13, in relation to the disputed violation of the disclosure obligations established by the European Regulation on market abuse (Mar Regulation), regarding the alleged privileged nature of some information managed by the company.
The fine applied to the company refers to the information disclosed to the market with i press releases of March 10 and April 7, 2020 on the completion of studies for the launch of a molecular test and a serological test for the diagnosis and identification of the immune response to Sars-CoV-2, information that – according to Consob – the company should have classified as privileged. “In particular – explains the Authority – irregularities have emerged consisting in the failure to qualify the privileged nature of the information referred to in the aforementioned press releases”, since, in particular “in article 17” of the Mar Regulation, “entitled Communication to the public of privileged information, in paragraph 1 establishes the obligation of the issuer to disclose to the public, as soon as possible, the privileged information that directly concerns him”.
Consob’s objection dates back to February 28 of last year, while DiaSorin’s first defensive deductions were produced on May 25 of the same year.
The company underlines how its behavior was consistent with the past, as the development of new products had never been treated as privileged information, as well as aligned with that held by all other diagnostic operators on the European market.
On the basis of the similar objection, as mentioned, Consob also applied against Carlo Rosa, for alleged unlawful disclosure of privileged information, a pecuniary administrative sanction of 20 thousand euros and the consequent mandatory accessory administrative sanction consisting of the temporary disqualification from carrying out functions of administration, management and control of listed companies, for two months. In any case, DiaSorin reiterates that Carlo Rosa is not accused of any transaction for the purchase or sale of DiaSorin shares, nor is he accused of having, even indirectly, operated or solicited others to operate on the company’s shares in an illegal manner. This aspect was instead from Prosecutor of Milan, which in January of last year indicted Carlo Rosa, in relation to the hypothesis of the crime of insider trading. In this regard, DiaSorin underlined that Rosa was not accused of having operated illegally on the company’s shares and that the gain that from the operation under investigation would have been obtained by another party, benefiting from alleged
privileged information received from Rosa, would be less than 2 thousand euros. Finally, in April of this year, the investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Pavia into alleged bid rigging regarding the direct assignment by the Lombardy region to Diasorin, for 500,000 serological tests worth 2 million euros, carried out following an experiment that took place in the laboratories of the Policlinico di Pavia San Matteo.