GSK sacks 110 China staff in wake of drug bribery case - sources

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, which was fined 3 billion yuan ($479 million) in Chinalast year for bribery, is dismissing 110 employees in thecountry for misconduct, people familiar with the matter said onFriday.

The British company confirmed it had taken disciplinaryaction against staff whose conduct contravened its values andcode of conduct but declined to specify the number involved. Themisconduct took place before mid-2013, GSK added in a statement.

The dismissals follow detailed investigations intowrongdoing by employees in the wake of the corruption scandal,which badly damaged the drugmaker's reputation and hit itsbusiness in a fast-growing emerging market.

"As we have previously said, we have increased ourmonitoring of expense claims and increased our complianceefforts. We also engaged an independent legal firm and externalconsultancies to review our operations in China," GSK said.

"Where evidence of misconduct has been found, we takeappropriate disciplinary action up to and including terminationof employment."

The company's annual report, published last week, hadalready revealed that the number disciplinary cases againststaff in China jumped to 652 in 2014 from 48 in 2013.

Chinese police first accused GSK of bribery in July 2013,alleging the firm had funnelled as much as 3 billion yuan totravel agencies to facilitate bribes to doctors and officials.

The Chinese action highlights how regulators in the countryare increasingly cracking down on corporate malpractice. GSK wasissued with its record fine -- exactly the same amount as thealleged bribery -- in September 2014.

A court in the southern city of Changsha also handedsuspended jail sentences to Mark Reilly, the former head of GSKin China, and four other GSK executives.

The case was the biggest corruption scandal to hit a foreigncompany in China since the Rio Tinto affair in 2009, whichresulted in four executives, including an Australian, beingjailed.

($1 = 6.2620 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Editing by Mark Potter)