Shanghai police subpoena AstraZeneca employee

AstraZeneca has become the latest major international pharmaceutical firm involved in a police investigation in China, as media reports said Tuesday that a sales representative from the UK-based company has been subpoenaed by the Shanghai police for investigation.

The company confirmed it was visited by Shanghai police Monday night and a sales representative was subpoenaed to "cooperate with the police investigation," the China Business News (CBN) reported Tuesday.

But AstraZeneca said that the employee was subpoenaed for "personal reasons," and the company had received no further notifications from the police, said the report.

Calls to the company went unanswered Tuesday.

The case is one in a string of international pharmaceutical companies involved in investigations. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was implicated in a bribery scandal earlier this month, and Belgian drug maker UCB confirmed on Friday that it was under a compliance investigation by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC).

UCB said that the SAIC has launched investigations into many other pharmaceutical companies, both international and domestic, according to the CBN.

"As the GSK incident further develops, more drug companies may get exposed," Zhong Hongyue, a healthcare sector analyst at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, told the Global Times Tuesday.

GSK was found bribing government officials, industry associations, hospitals and doctors to increase sales and drug prices earlier this month. GSK has pledged to cut drug prices since the case was revealed.

Travel agencies have also been found cooperating with pharmaceutical companies to pay bribes.

Shanghai Linjiang travel agency was investigated by the police for involvement in the GSK case, and many other major drug makers such as Merck, Novartis and Roche also used the agency, media reports said.

"Almost all the companies in the sector can be found involved in corruption," said Zhong, noting that the whole industry, from pharmaceutical firms to doctors or even nurses, can be involved in corruption practices.

US drug makers Eli Lilly and Pfizer were charged in 2012 for improper or illegal payments their subsidiaries made in countries including China, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Prices of medicines produced by foreign drug makers are sometimes five times as much as similar products from domestic companies. Though they are of better quality, there is room for further price cuts," a doctor, who revealed only her family name Liang, told the Global Times Tuesday.

Reports have speculated that the government has launched a series of investigations into the sector.

Media said Tuesday that the National Development and Reform Commission has launched random investigations of 60 domestic and foreign drug producers on their costs and factory prices.

"Corruption behaviors in the sector may be deterred in the short run after the GSK incident, but in the long run, the corruption may be more sneaky and diversified," said Zhong, who noted that reform is needed to curb the problem.