GSK top executive allegedly probed for economic crimes

The China branch of pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), confirmed with the Global Times on Sunday that their offices "were visited on June 27 by Chinese government authorities" as a response to media reports claiming that a senior executive from the company is under investigation for economic crimes.

The Public Security Bureau (PSB) of Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province, posted an entry on its official Weibo on Friday, saying that "the Changsha PSB is probing a high-level management employee of GSK (China) Investment Company under suspicion of economic crimes."

GSK China told the Global Times that the company was not aware of the precise nature and purpose of the authorities' visit on Thursday.

"We will of course co-operate with their inquiries," the email said Sunday.

The company did not specify which executive the police was probing and why it was the Changsha PSB that took the action.

GSK has no manufacturing bases in Changsha, and its administrative office in the city was shut down a few months ago, reported Xiaoxiang Morning Herald on Friday.

Since the evening of Thursday, several Weibo users have been posting information about the investigation. "Right before leaving time, more than 10 undercover policemen went into the foreign chief financial officer's office at GSK's Shanghai base, and ordered other employees to leave," said a Weibo user with the handle "Yikuaibanzhuan."

The user later posted entries claiming that the pharmaceutical company has hired accountants from Ernst & Young and several lawyers to be its think tank, adding that the violation might be "not as simple as just bribery," and it is likely to involve officials from China's top drug control agencies.

Neither "Yikuaibanzhuan" nor Ernst & Young was reached by the Global Times to comment as of late Sunday.

London-based GSK, one of the world's largest prescription drug makers, was established through a merger in 2000. The China branch of the company focuses on making prescription drugs, vaccines and consumer health care products.

The pharmaceutical maker has had a rough June. Earlier in June, the deputy head of GSK's research and development branch in China and the director of its neuroimmunology center in Shanghai left the company, after they were accused of fabricating figures in an essay they published in Natural Medicine in 2010.