Probe tastes bitter for drugmaker
Print Edition
Shares of Sinopharm Group Co dropped yesterday after China’s largest pharmaceutical distributor said two former senior executives have been detained in a corruption investigation.
Sinopharm’s Hong Kong-listed shares lost 1.1 percent to close at HK$22.75 (US$2.93), paring earlier losses of up to 3.7 percent. The Hang Seng Index gained 0.19 percent.
Shi Jinming, former vice president of Sinopharm, was detained by the local prosecutor of Shanghai’s Pudong New Area on Friday for investigation over allegation of graft, the state-owned company said in a filing to the Hong Kong exchange late on Sunday.
Shi resigned on January 7 due to personal reasons, the company said in the statement, without giving details.
Xu Yizhong, a former general manager of a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sinopharm, was also being investigated in the same case, the statement said.
Sinopharm said the investigation had no material impact on its operations and a special committee led by its chairman and president has been set up to examine the company’s internal control system.
The announcement follows investigations last year of foreign drugmakers on suspicion of paying doctors or other hospital employees to encourage use of their products.
In July, four executives of British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc were detained over allegations they were involved in giving bribes totaling 3 billion yuan (US$496 million) to government officials and doctors.
Rival drugmaker AstraZeneca said one of its executives also was detained by investigators. No further details of that case have been released.
Chinese health researchers say informal payments to low-paid doctors and hospital employees by patients are common in the state-run hospital system.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
