To stifle competition ahead of the 2012 expiry of the patent for one of its drugs, GSK used bribes to ensure hospitals were using the drug exclusively, Gao said.
GSK also set up a special unit to fend off bribery investigations, he said. Employees had obstructed previous inquiries into possible misconduct by bribing investigators and other government officials.
In a separate statement, police in the central city of Changsha, where the investigation began, said Reilly and two Chinese executives also are accused of bribing government officials in Beijing and Shanghai.
Police in Changsha said last July that employees appeared to be trying to evade GSK’s internal anti-bribery controls by making payments totaling as much as 3 billion yuan ($490 million) to a travel agency that gave back at least part of that money.
One of the detained Chinese employees was shown on state television at that time describing how he paid bribes to government officials to win support for use of the company’s medications.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/14/british-executive-accused-in-china-drug-bribery/?page=2#ixzz31mhurFJ8
