The director of the Chinese branch of British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has been placed under investigation in the Asian country, the company announced, following information about alleged illegal data collection and import of unauthorized medicines.
AstraZeneca China President Leon Wang is "cooperating with Chinese authorities as part of an ongoing investigation," said the statement issued by the group on Wednesday.
"Our activities in China continue under the leadership of the current general director of AstraZeneca China," he added. "If requested, AstraZeneca will fully cooperate with the investigation", says the same note.
China is a key market for the group, which gained global recognition during the Covid-19 pandemic for developing one of the first vaccines against the disease.
In September, the company confirmed that several employees were being investigated in China. This information came in the wake of reports that employees were being questioned about possible unauthorized data collection and illegal importation of medicines.
The investigations carried out by authorities in Shenzhen (southern China) involve five people of Chinese nationality, some still employed by the group and others no longer, according to the financial news agency Bloomberg.
One of the investigations is related to the collection of patient data, which authorities believe violated Chinese privacy protection laws, according to Bloomberg, which cited people close to the case.
Another investigation involves the import of a liver cancer drug that has not been approved in mainland China, the agency said.
Astrazeneca, which is headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom, employs 90,000 people worldwide.
In recent years, some multinationals have reported an increasingly difficult business environment in China. They complain, in particular, about a lack of transparency regarding data legislation and the prolonged imprisonment of employees.
No comments:
Post a Comment