Second drug firm gets embroiled in scandal, accused of bribing officials

Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group said Friday that it has sent staff to inspect the operations of one of its subsidiaries and will strictly deal with any violations, following allegations its employees made.

Company chairman Chen Qiyu said the firm considers the case very important and has sent staff to verify it, according to an announcement the company sent to the Global Times on Friday.

The company supervises the operations of its subsidiaries, and will strictly handle violations found during inspections, the announcement said.

The company’s response came after Chongqing’s drug regulator opened an investigation into the alleged violations in the operations of the company’s Chongqing subsidiary.

The Chongqing Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that it has sent an inspection team to the Chongqing Pharmaceutical Research Institute, subsidiary of the group, and will deal with violations in accordance with the law.

The announcement was published on the administration’s website in response to a letter posted on its website. The letter’s authors claimed to be employees of the institute, and said that the institute’s leaders ignored regulations on drug manufacturing and fabricated production and drug test records.

Employees also claimed that the institute’s leaders bribed administration officials so that changes to the production of the two drugs, one to treat mental disorder and one for tumors, could be approved by the administration.

In response to the bribery accusation, the administration said Friday that it did not find any disciplinary violations.

The group’s shares fell 6.89 percent on Friday.

The company is the latest to be embroiled in a scandal in the past two months in China.

Changchun Changsheng Bio-technology Company came under fire in July for supplying ineffective diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus (DPT) vaccines and forging data for rabies vaccines.

As of August, more than 40 officials were found to be accountable for the substandard vaccine scandal.