Alarmed that colleagues were bribing Chinese doctors and giving kickbacks to hospital workers to boost drug sales, an employee at the British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline began documenting the alleged crimes in the fall of 2010 and sending detailed notes to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Using an anonymous email address, the GSK employee sent similar packages to regulators in China.
No one responded — for years.
So in early 2013, the Shanghai-based whistleblower began writing directly to GSK's board and top executives at its London headquarters, and also contacted journalists at The Wall Street Journal, who then published a lengthy article on June 12. In that story, the paper detailed the anonymous tipster’s allegations, including claims about kickbacks and how the company pushed its epilepsy drug, Lamictal, for unapproved uses, a decision the tipster claimed nearly killed a patient.
Documents prov
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
For years, Amazon recruited Chinese sellers aggressively, profiting handsomely from the surge in product offerings and low prices. But many Chinese sellers' bad practices — from selling counterfeits to manipulating reviews — now have the e-commerce giant on the defensive.
