China’s largest drug distributor has become the most prominent domestic target in a corruption probe into the promotional methods of several foreign and local pharmaceutical companies.
Sinopharm, the state-owned Chinese drug group, said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Sunday that two former senior executives were under investigation for corruption, one of whom was detained by police in Shanghai on Friday night.
Shi Jinming, a former vice-president who resigned on December 29 for “personal reasons”, was detained “for an investigation in relation to an allegation of corruption against him”, the statement said. It gave no further details.