GSK prosecutors "may examine earlier China bribery scandals"

17th Jul 2014 07:54

GlaxoSmithKline has allegedly admitted it found that staff were bribing Chinese officials and taking kickbacks as far back as 2001, according to the Financial Times. According to unidentified sources cited by the paper, GSK arranged for advisor PwC to investigate the potential corrupt practices and says it felt the issue had been satisfactorily dealt with internally."These matters occurred over 12 years ago. We believe appropriate investigation and action was taken at the time," GSK told the FT.Both the US Department of Justice and UK authorities have been investigating more recent allegations that GSK staff had bribed Chinese doctors and officials to improve drug sales in the country.The US Department of Justice is now likely to scrutinise the earlier allegations to identify any pattern of dubious behaviour from the company, which could result in tougher penalties, the FT cited an unidentified former senior DoJ official as saying.GSK has stressed that Chief Executive Andrew Witty, who headed the company's Asian operations at the time, was not aware of the case then. OH