Chinese police have accused a British executive in drugs maker GlaxoSmithKline’s China unit of ordering his salespeople to bribe doctors and hospital officials to use the company’s products.
Wednesday’s announcement marks the first time a foreign employee in China of British-based GSK has been accused in connection with the bribery allegations against the company.
In a statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency, police in the central city of Changsha said Mark Reilly was accused of pressing his sales team to bribe doctors, hospital officials and health institutions. It said that resulted in “illegal revenue” of billions of yuan.
The statement said Reilly and two Chinese executives also were accused of bribing government officials in Beijing and Shanghai.
In April the GSK whistleblower Jarek Wisniewiski told the BBC’s Panorama programme that company representatives paid doctors to boost prescriptions in Poland.
Another former GSK drug representative, who did not want to be identified, said they paid doctors for lectures that never happened and this would result in a greater number of prescriptions.
Wisniewiski said he had voiced his concerns with the drugs company but this resulted in him being sidelined at work and eventually sacked.
The programme said a criminal investigation was under way and 11 doctors and one GSK regional manager had been charged in connection with corruption.
If the new allegations were well founded GSK may have violated both the UK’s Bribery Act and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the BBC programme said. It is illegal for companies based in the US or UK to bribe government employees abroad.