Roche admits ‘visit’ from government
Print Edition
ROCHE said yesterday that “China’s government officials have visited” its Hangzhou office as the Swiss drugmaker responded to a widely circulated piece on China’s Weibo that it has been under investigation by industry and commerce regulatory officials and that its Hangzhou branch closed.
The visit triggered speculation that authorities could launch a deeper investigation into irregularities of drugmakers just a week after China charged British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline of using bribes to boost sales in the country.
In an e-mailed two-sentence statement yesterday, Roche acknowledged the “visit” and noted the company will fully cooperate with China’s government bodies.
Roche added that other details are not clear and declined to say more. The regulatory authority is a unit of China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce.
The visit to Roche follows the police’s announcement last week that the bribery investigation into GSK China has been completed and the case handed over to prosecutors.
A formal investigation into the GSK bribery allegations was launched last July by police in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province. At the time, police alleged that GSK employees were making payments totaling as much as 3 billion yuan (US$481 million) to medical personnel via a backdoor arrangement with a travel agency.
After 10 months of investigation, police found that Mark Reilly, a British national and manager of GSK China, had ordered his subordinates to offer bribes.
Reilly was one of 46 suspects being investigated.
The local branches and offices of some multinational pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have been “visited” by government officials after the revelations of the GSK investigation last year. But no official charges have been brought.
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