By Hester Plumridge
LONDON--Polish prosecutors have charged 13 people in connection
with a bribery investigation into GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Poland's
Anti-Corruption Bureau said Monday.
A statement from the Polish agency came after the British
Broadcasting Corp. reported that Glaxo is facing a criminal
investigation for allegedly bribing doctors in Poland to promote
its best-selling asthma drug Advair--marketed in Europe as
Seretide--between 2010 and 2012.
The agency said it had received information about "possible
irregularities." It declined to comment further.
Glaxo said in a statement Monday that an internal investigation
"found evidence of inappropriate communication in contravention of
GSK policy by a single employee. The employee concerned was
reprimanded and disciplined as a result." Glaxo said it was
cooperating fully with Polish authorities.
The newly disclosed probe comes as the U.K. company faces
separate allegations its employees bribed doctors in China and the
Middle East.
Chinese authorities last summer accused Glaxo of bribing doctors
and, since then, have been investigating the company. Glaxo has
said it appears some of its senior staff in China broke the law and
is cooperating with the investigation.
In Iraq, a person familiar with Glaxo's Mideast operations
emailed the company late last year to report allegations of
bribery, in emails seen this month by The Wall Street Journal.
Glaxo is now investigating its business units in nine countries
in the Gulf and Middle East region, and said in a statement it
takes the allegations seriously and has put a temporary stop to
interactions between employees and government officials in the
region "to ensure any activity is in compliance with our policies
and procedures."
In 2012, Glaxo paid a $3 billion fine--the largest
healthcare-fraud settlement in U.S. history--after pleading guilty
to illegally marketing drugs and withholding safety data. Glaxo
said in December it was stopping all payments to doctors globally
to attend conferences or speak about its drugs, a policy it expects
to be in place world-wide by 2016.
Write to Hester Plumridge at Hester.Plumridge@wsj.com
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