Killing the chicken to scare the monkey

Britain’s biggest drug maker did not know it was under criminal investigation in China until police stormed its Shanghai offices in late June. When news filtered back to London, executives were non-plussed and scrambled to try to get details of what was going on.Now there is little doubt GlaxoSmithKline is embroiled in one of the biggest criminal inquiries into bribery ever conducted in China and its executives in the UK capital are poring over the details.Like any approaching tidal wave, it started with just a few ripples. The first came in February, when Chinese authorities called around the world’s drug giants demanding information about their pricing practices in the country.At the same time, GSK was dealing with a separate investigation prompted by whistle-blower claims that sales executives were plying Chinese doctors with extravagant gifts in return for prescribing its products.GSK was confident the allegations were unfounded. When they became public in June, it issued a statement revealing the “significant resources” it had used to “thoroughly investigate” the claims. “GSK wants to reiterate to its patients, staff and partners in China that these allegations are false,” it declared.It wasn’t long before events took a darker turn. Shortly after the raid on GSK’s China headquarters, a statement came from authorities in the regional city of Changsha announcing that certain individuals were under investigation for “economic crimes”.Since then, four...
Source: PharmaGossip - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs