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| GSK's office in Beijing. Four managers have been named as suspects in a bribery case. Photograph: Alexander F Yuan/AP |
Associated Press in Beijing
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 July 2013 03.42 BST
Four managers at Chinese arm of drug company accused of web of payments to doctors, medical industry and officials
Chinese state media have named four managers of drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline accused by police of paying millions in bribes to doctors and others.
The police ministry had earlier announced that GSK employees were under investigation for paying bribes that were passed through travel agencies. It said the bribes were aimed at increasing sales.
Four employees being questioned include a vice-president and human resources director of Glaxo's Chinese unit, the Xinhua News Agency said on Monday, citing police as the source of the information.
They were named as Liang Hong, vice-president and operations manager; Zhang Guowei, vice-president and human resources head; Zhao Hongyan, legal affairs director; and Huang Hong, business development manager.
Investigators also questioned the corporate representative of the Shanghai Linjiang International Travel Agency, Xinhua said. It cited an unnamed investigator who said most of the agency's business came from laundering money for the bribery scheme.
The report said at least 50m yuan (£5.4m/$8.2m) passed through a travel agency as part of a scheme to hide the bribes. It said one suspect had authority to approve a budget of hundreds of millions of yuan but did not say how much of that might have been used for bribery. The scheme helped the employees circumvent GSK's rules that limited gift-giving to 300 yuan per recipient, Xinhua said.
GlaxoSmithKline PLC said on Monday that it was co-operating with the authorities. "We are deeply concerned and disappointed by these serious allegations of fraudulent behaviour and ethical misconduct by certain individuals at the company and third-party agencies," it said in a statement.
"Such behaviour would be a clear breach of GSK's systems, governance procedures, values and standards. GSK has zero tolerance for any behavior of this nature."
It said GSK was reviewing all third-party agency relationships and had "put an immediate stop on the use of travel agencies that have been identified so far in this investigation and we are conducting a thorough review of all historic transactions related to travel agency use".
The police ministry said last week that GSK employees were suspected of paying bribes to doctors, hospitals, medical associations and government officials.
GlaxoSmithKline said in June that it had investigated an accusation that its salespeople in China bribed doctors and found no evidence of wrongdoing. The company has said the police investigation might be based on information from the same anonymous source.
GSK is headquartered in Britain but has a presence in the US, which could make it liable to penalties under US anti-bribery laws.
Last week state media reported the government was investigating production costs for 60 foreign and domestic drug companies in a possible first step toward changing state-set maximum prices. The announcement gave no indication any companies were suspected of wrongdoing.
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appledaily.com.tw 台灣蘋果日報
GSK中國行賄 4高階主管涉案
【綜合報導】全球知名藥商葛蘭素史克（GlaxoSmithKline，GSK）在中國行賄案情持續發展。中國警方日前進一步查出4名中國高階主管涉案，超過20名藥商和旅行社工作人員都被調查。
葛蘭素史克（中國）投資有限公司目前是中國規模最大的跨國製藥企業之一，近年來，葛蘭素史克曾在美國、義大利、紐西蘭等國爆發違規行為被處以高額罰款。
中 國的葛蘭素史克公司為達到打開藥品銷售管道以及提高藥品售價的目的，利用旅行社等管道，向個別政府部門官員、少數醫藥行業協會和基金會、醫院、醫生行賄。 目前得知20餘名的涉案人員中，包括了葛蘭素史克中國公司內部分別涉及法務、人事、市場和營銷的四大高層管理人員，這4名高階主管名下還都各有一家旅行 社，因此有四家旅行社涉及此案。
葛蘭素史克（中國）投資有限公司目前是中國規模最大的跨國製藥企業之一，近年來，葛蘭素史克曾在美國、義大利、紐西蘭等國爆發違規行為被處以高額罰款。
中 國的葛蘭素史克公司為達到打開藥品銷售管道以及提高藥品售價的目的，利用旅行社等管道，向個別政府部門官員、少數醫藥行業協會和基金會、醫院、醫生行賄。 目前得知20餘名的涉案人員中，包括了葛蘭素史克中國公司內部分別涉及法務、人事、市場和營銷的四大高層管理人員，這4名高階主管名下還都各有一家旅行 社，因此有四家旅行社涉及此案。
中國葛蘭素史克公司行賄案越滾越大，目前已知有當地四名高階主管涉案。路透
