From BBC

China’s largest drug distributor Sinopharm has said two of its former senior executives are being investigated over alleged corruption.

A former vice president was detained by police last week, while a former general manager is also being probed.

Sinopharm is the most high-profile domestic company to feature in China’s crackdown on misconduct in its pharmaceutical sector so far.

Shares of Sinopharm fell by more than 2% in Hong Kong trading on Monday.

In a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Sunday, Sinopharm said its former vice president, Shi Jinming, had resigned last month for “personal reasons”.

It said he was detained last week by Shanghai prosecutors for “an investigation in relation to an allegation of corruption against him”.

The state-owned company said its operations had not been impacted by the investigation and that a special committee had been set up to review its internal controls.

GSK

Last year, international pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) were accused of paying bribes in return for product promotion.

Following the scandal, GSK said it would stop paying doctors to promote its products through speaking engagements and scrap individual sales targets.

However, the UK firm said the measures were part of planned reforms to improve transparency and were not related to the China investigation.

IMAGE: China’s pharmaceutical industry has been under scrutiny by regulators AFP

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