(Photo : GSK & Astrazeneca)

China is now taking action to probe multinational companies to be threatened in cases of bribery. Recently, Chinese police visited AstraZeneca, a well-known British drug company in Shanghai. The police detained one employee to obtain further information about the company's operations.

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AstraZeneca stated that the company has "no reason to believe" that the detained employee was not related to other investigations.

UCB, a Belgian drug-maker was also visited last week by the officials from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC). The drug-maker company stated that they also are investigating other drug companies in China.

GlaxoSmithKline's Asia-Pacific president has met with the Chinese police to find out about the case of bribery. He said that, "Certain senior executives of GSK China who know our systems well appear to have acted outside of our processes and controls, which breaches Chinese law,"

Currently, four employees of GSK are in detention. This includes the vice president of the company. Chinese officials said that the finance director is not allowed to leave the country, but not in detention.

China police revealed that the GSK employees have channeled an estimate of 3 billion yuan through consulting firms and travel agencies to hide traces of bribes. The investigators are yet to find out the exact amount paid for bribery.

As for the case of AstraZeneca, the police's visit was "regarding a local police matter focused on a sales representative." The company said, "We believe that this investigation relates to an individual case."

"We have no reason to believe that it's related to any other investigations." The company also reiterated that it "does not tolerate any illegal or unethical conduct."

"We have a strict global policy on ethical interactions, which all our employees and third parties acting on hour behalf must follow."

"All AstraZeneca China employees and third parties on AstraZeneca's behalf are required to strictly comply with these guidelines in the conduct of business."