AstraZeneca, headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom, employs 90,000 people worldwide.
The head of the China branch of British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is the target of an investigation in the Asian country, the company announced on Wednesday.
President of AstraZeneca China, Leon Wang, “is cooperating with Chinese authorities in an ongoing investigation“, the company said in a statement. “Our activities in China continue under the leadership of the current Managing Director of AstraZeneca China“, the pharmaceutical company clarified. “If requested to do so, AstraZeneca will fully cooperate with the investigation.”
China is a key market for AstraZeneca, which had gained strong notoriety around the world during the Covid-19 pandemic for having developed one of the first vaccines against the disease.
In September, the company confirmed that several employees were under investigation in China. The announcement followed press reports that they had been questioned over possible unauthorized data collection and illegal imports of medicines.
The investigations carried out by the authorities in Shenzhen (south China) concerned five people of Chinese nationality, some still employed by the group and others no longer employed, according to the economic information agency Bloomberg. One of the investigations relates to the collection of patient data, with authorities suspecting non-compliance with Chinese privacy laws, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.
Another investigation concerns possible imports of a liver cancer drug that has not been approved in mainland China, according to the news agency.
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