Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan told employees in an internal memo Thursday that "yesterday was not a good day" for the company, after the pharmaceutical giant revealed it paid $1.2 million to President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Narasimhan said "we made a mistake" in entering a contract in February 2017 with Cohen through his company, Essential Consultants, for guidance "as to how the Trump administration might approach certain US healthcare policy matters."
"As a consequence, [we] are being criticized by a world that expects more from us," Narasimhan said in the internal email, which was obtained by CNBC.