Once again, the version of events presented by GlaxoSmithKline over the embarrassing bribery scandal in China is being questioned. The latest confusion is brought to you courtesy of a report from the Xinhua news agency in which Huang Hong, the general manager for Glaxo operations there, claims the drugmaker shifted responsibility onto individual sales reps as the investigation heated up.
The police investigation found the Glaxo unit in China “went through the motions in internal auditing” so the violations would not be discovered, according to Xinhua, which interviewed Hong. He explained Glaxo set goals for annual sales growth as high as 25 percent, which was 7 percent to 8 percent above industry averages, but could not be accomplished without “dubious corporate behavior.”
The implication is that Glaxo executives – at least those in China or overseeing operations there – coordinated the bribery scheme. As reported previously, Glaxo employees are alleged to have paid more than $400 million in bribes to doctors and government officials, and used travel agencies to create conferences in order to funnel some of the money in hopes of boosting prescriptions for its medicines.
In a statement made several weeks ago, Glaxo ceo Andrew Witty called this mess “shameful” and blamed "individuals" who operated outside "controls and processes." Days earlier, Abbas Hussain, Glaxo president of international operations issued a formal statement admitting that "certain senior execs" in the Chinese unit "acted outside of our processes and controls, which breaches Chinese law."
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