GLAXO EXECUTIVES POSSIBLY BROKE CHINESE LAW, DRUG MAKER SAYS

GSK said Monday that some of its executives might have broken the law in China,
the company's strongest statement yet on a bribery and corruption scandal that
has engulfed its china operation.
The statement, release after three top Glaxo executives began meeting with
Chinese Investigators, came amid signs that other drug makers could also come
under scruntiny from the Chinese authorities.
On Monday, the British-Swedish srug company AstraZeneca said one of its
employees had been quationed by the police in Shanghai. The Company
released a statement saying that the police had visited the company and had
questions about sales representative. "We believe that this investigation related
to an individual case and while we have not yet received and update from the
Public Security Bureau, we have no yet reason to believe it's related to any other
investigations," the statement added.
Over the weekend, the drug makers Merck an Roche acknowledged that they had
used the same small Shanghai travel agency that investigators say worked with
Glaxo to bribe doctors, hospital and goverment officials.
In Glaxo's statement Monday that referred to the company's Chinese unit, Abbas
Hussain, one of the comany's highest-ranking executives, said:"Certain senior
executives of GSK China who know our system well appear to have acted outside
of our processes and controls, which breaches Chinese law."
The police in Shanghai have also detained Peter Humphrey, a british fraud
investigator who had done some contract work for Glaxo, according to a person
familiar with this case.