By Maggie Fick and Casey Hall
LONDON/SHANGHAI, (Reuters) -AstraZeneca said its China president Leon Wang is under investigation and the drugmaker would cooperate with Chinese authorities.
The company did not say what the investigation was about or whether Wang has been detained by Chinese authorities. When asked about his whereabouts, a company spokesperson reiterated that the executive was under investigation.
The Anglo-Swedish company said in a statement on Wednesday that its Chinese operations were “under the leadership of the current general manager of AstraZeneca China,” without providing further details.
“If requested, AstraZeneca will fully cooperate with the investigation”, the statement said.
Shares in AstraZeneca, which has invested heavily in China – the world’s No. 2 pharmaceuticals market, ended 2.8% lower in London trade after the news.
Wang, who grew up in China and has been with AstraZeneca for more than a decade, is a high-profile executive who has often been quoted by China’s business press and holds leadership positions in domestic business organisations.
Last year, during an event to celebrate AstraZeneca’s 30th anniversary in the China market, he said his firm would seek to be a patriotic company in China that “loves the Communist Party”.
In September, China detained a small number of AstraZeneca’s current and former employees for questioning. At the time, Bloomberg News reported that five people were detained for questioning about potential illegal activities and that one of the investigations related to the firm’s collection of patient data.
The company has not given details about the detention of staff in September and a spokesperson had no comment on Wednesday on the status of the employees being held.
According to reports in local Chinese media, AstraZeneca has been under investigation since 2021, suspected of fabricating genetic testing results related to the firm’s lung cancer drug Tagrisso and of insurance fraud.
Former AstraZeneca executive and current chief commercial officer for oncology drugmaker BeiGene in China, Yin Min, was also cooperating with an investigation by Chinese authorities, local business media in China reported in recent days.
It is unclear whether Wang’s case, the detention of AstraZeneca staff in September and the other investigations are related.
AstraZeneca did not immediately reply to Reuters requests for comment about the other cases. BeiGene also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters was not able to contact Yin for comment.
The company is one of the biggest multinational drugmakers in China, which accounts for 13% of its group revenues. It announced plans last year to build a $450 million factory in China and it has signed a number of licensing deals with Chinese companies.
(Reporting by Maggie Fick in London and Casey Hall in Shanghai;Additional reporting by Andrew Silver in Shanghai; Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Tomasz Janowski, Barbara Lewis and Edwina Gibbs)
