BEIJING, July 27 (Reuters) - At least 18 more people havebeen detained in China in connection with a corruption scandalinvolving British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, state mediareported, giving more details on an investigation that hasrocked the company.
China's state radio reported late on Friday on its websitethat police in the central city of Zhengzhou had "recently held,in accordance with the law, 18 GlaxoSmithKline (China) employeesand some medical personnel".
It provided no details of the detentions nor say exactlywhen they happened.
The Zhengzhou police news department, reached by telephone,said they were "unaware of the situation" and declined tocomment further.
A GSK spokesman in London declined to comment on the report.
China's Ministry of Public Security said late on FridayGSK's former general manager for the country, Mark Reilly,currently in Britain, would return to China to cooperate in theinvestigation.
"The Ministry of Public Security welcomes GSK's position,and will provide necessary help to the work of the company'saudit team, and hopes that GSK China's operations and productionwill return to normal as soon as possible," it said.
Chinese police had earlier announced the detention of fourChinese GSK executives in connection with allegations that thedrugmaker funnelled up to 3 billion yuan ($489 million) totravel agencies to facilitate bribes to doctors and officials.
GSK has admitted that some Chinese executives appeared tohave broken the law but Chief Executive Andrew Witty said onWednesday that head office had no knowledge of the allegedwrongdoing.
The official Xinhua news agency said that certain GSKemployees were "suspected of offering bribes to doctors, askingthem to prescribe more drugs in order to grow sales volume, andin the meantime pushing up drug prices".
"PUSHING DOCTORS"
Xinhua cited an interview with a man surnamed Li, who itsaid was a regional sales manager for GSK responsible forselling respiratory drugs to more than 10 hospitals inZhengzhou, who gave details of how the corruption worked.
"They invited doctors to join high-end academic conferencesto help the practitioners increase influence in their fields.They also established good personal relations with doctors bycatering to their pleasures or offering them money, in order tomake them prescribe more drugs," Xinhua said.
"A 35-year-old female medical representative surnamed Wang,working under Li, said she entered doctors' offices to act astheir assistant, and meet their needs as much as possible, eventheir sexual desires," the news agency added.
"Wang said GSK China's executives already knew this, andsome executives gave clear directives to the sales department tooffer bribes to doctors with money or opportunities to attendacademic conferences."
However, many doctors got money even when the lectures didnot actually exist, Xinhua said.
"Wang just forged lecture materials in order to obtainreimbursements from the company," it added.
"According to Li and Wang, the company set the target ofraising drug sales by 30 percent annually in the last two years,and the target can only be achieved by pushing doctors toprescribe more if there are no increases in the number ofpatients," Xinhua reported.
GSK this week appointed one of its top European executivesas the new head of operations in China.
Glaxosmithkline (GSK)