China accuses former GSK head of bribing doctors

CHANGSHA - The bribery investigation of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) China has been completed and the case handed over to prosecutors, Changsha police said on Wednesday.

Prosecutors have started their examination of the case that involves a total of 46 suspects, with Mark Reilly, a British national and manager of GSK China, among them. After ten months of investigation, police found that Reilly had ordered his subordinates to offer bribes.

Reilly allegedly pressed his sales teams to bribe hospitals, doctors, other medical institutions and organizations through various means and gained illegal revenue of billions.

Reilly was promoted to general manager of GSK China in November 2012. Two other executives, Zhang Guowei and Zhao Hongyan, are also suspected of bribing officials in Beijing and Shanghai to escape investigation.

Bigger bribes bring better sales

To boost sales and squeeze out rival companies, GSK China allegedly bribed doctors to prescribe their drugs. Li, one of the suspects and a doctor at a Hunan hospital, told Xinhua that in March 2012, a GSK sales representative offered him 20 yuan ($3) for every box of Heptodin he prescribed and 100 yuan for every new patient who started using the drug. Heptodin is used to treat Hepatitis B.

Li normally prescribed 150 to 200 boxes of Heptodin and recruited five to eight new patients each month, which brought him about 4,800 yuan of extra income. GSK China's sales rep Tan would register the expense as payment for Li lecturing in the company's training programs.

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