'No systemic issue' insists GSK amid yet more corruption allegations
This article was originally published in Scrip
Jordan and Lebanon have been added to the growing list of countries where GlaxoSmithKline is investigating allegations of bribery, the pharma giant has admitted in a statement.
Reports emerged just a few days ago of bribery allegations in Poland (scripintelligence.com, 14 April 2014), which came on the back of alleged misconduct in Iraq.
GSK says it publicly discloses all cases of misconduct identified in the company. Last year's 161 violations relating to sales and marketing polices, resulting in 48 dismissals and 113 written warnings, "are very similar to those reported by other companies in our sector."
The company is "confident" in its processes and controls. "We do not have a systemic issue with unethical behavior in GSK," it insisted.
"We have zero tolerance for unethical or illegal behavior," it added. "We started investigating using internal and external teams as soon as we became aware of these claims [in Jordan and Lebanon]."
GSK is still recovering from a bribery scandal in China in 2013 which decimated the company's £1bn business there: it declined more than 60% in the aftermath. The entire pharmaceutical sector in the country has since been under scrutiny by Chinese officials (scripintelligence.com, 14 February 2014).
In the wake of the Chinese scandal, GSK announced a series of measures to clean up its marketing procedures (scripintelligence.com, 17 December 2013). Its sales reps no longer have individual sales targets, and its relationship with doctors is being "modernized" by ceasing payments for speaking arrangements or attendance at medical conferences. However, this latter move will take until 2016 to become effective.