Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca takes Chinese investigations ‘very seriously’

British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said on Tuesday it is taking “very seriously” China’s investigation into possible illegal data collection and drug imports by the group that led to the detention of its Chinese boss.

“We take business in China very seriously,” CEO Pascal Soriot said in a statement in the group’s latest earnings release.

“We will fully cooperate with the authorities upon request. We remain committed to providing innovative life-changing medicines to patients in China,” he added.

The group confirmed last week that Leon Wang, president of AstraZeneca China, had been arrested.

China is a key market for AstraZeneca, developer of a Covid-19 shot being widely administered around the world during the coronavirus pandemic.

AstraZeneca noted on Tuesday that China accounted for about 12 percent of its global sales in the third quarter. Turnover in the country increased by 15 percent in the period July-September.

“The company is aware of a number of individual investigations by Chinese authorities into current and former AstraZeneca employees,” the drug giant added in the latest statement.

“To the company’s knowledge, the investigations include allegations of health insurance fraud, illegal drug imports and personal information breaches.”

AstraZeneca said it has “not received any reports that it is being investigated itself.”

The investigations involved five current and former company employees – all with Chinese citizenship – which Bloomberg reports are being led by authorities in the southern city of Shenzhen.

One investigation involved the company’s collection of patient data, which authorities suspect violated Chinese privacy laws, the financial newswire also reported, citing people with knowledge of the situation.

Another investigation involved the import of a liver cancer drug that was not approved in mainland China, according to Bloomberg.

U.K.-based AstraZeneca has 90,000 employees worldwide.

Global companies have faced an increasingly difficult business environment in China in recent years, industry groups say, citing a lack of transparency over data laws and lengthy employee detentions.

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