(Adds GSK declines to comment)
BEIJING, May 13 (Reuters) - Chinese police will brief themedia on Wednesday about British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC, which has been under investigation for allegedlyfunneling up to 3 billion yuan to travel agencies to facilitatebribes to doctors and officials.
An official at the Ministry of Public Security, whichoversees the police, gave no details about the briefing, whichis slated for Wednesday at 11 a.m. (0300 GMT).
A spokesman at GSK declined to comment.
Police detained four executives of the British drugmaker inJuly in connection with the bribery allegations. They includevice president and operations manager Liang Hong, who gave anaccount on Chinese television in July of how the alleged briberywas carried out.
Legal and industry sources had told Reuters in November thatChinese police were likely to charge some of GSK's Chineseexecutives but not the British drugmaker itself.
The company has said previously that some of its seniorChinese executives appear to have broken the law, and that ithas zero tolerance for bribery.
Bribery between sales staff and doctors is rife in China,with steep sales targets and low salaries for doctors creatingfertile ground for backhanders. Local managers can create strongpower bases, lawyers and industry insiders said.
A source told Reuters last month that GSK had appointed twoexecutives to new roles overseeing sales and marketing in China,creating a wider gap between the two key functions.
(Reporting by Hui Li and Megha Rajagopalan; Additionalreporting by Kazunori Takada in SHANGHAI and Ben Hirschler inLONDON; Writing by John Ruwitch; Editing by MuralikumarAnantharaman and Miral Fahmy)
Glaxosmithkline (GSK)
