(Bloomberg) -- Chinese authorities are probing a former senior executive of AstraZeneca Plc in the country, local media outlets reported on Friday, in a sign Beijing is widening its scrutiny of the British pharmaceutical giant’s operations in mainland China.
Authorities recently detained Eva Yin, who is currently Chief Commercial Officer for the greater China region at Chinese drugmaker Beigene Ltd., Jiemian and 21st Century Business Herald reported. Before joining Beigene in January 2022, Yin had worked for AstraZeneca for more than 15 years, and had been general manager of the multinational company’s China oncology business.
The probe could be related to state medical insurance fraud that implicated AstraZeneca several years ago, Jiemian reported, citing sources it didn’t identify. Several other individuals were recently taken away by Chinese authorities with regard to the AstraZeneca insurance fraud case, though some have already been released, Jiemian reported.
Beigene’s Hong Kong-listed shares tumbled as much as 8% on Friday after the Jiemian report was published around midday, before paring most of the losses in the afternoon. Its Shanghai-listed shares closed down 3.6%.
“Beigene has learned that one of its employees is assisting an investigation. The matter this employee is involved in has nothing to do with Beigene,” the company said in a statement on its WeChat account after the market close. AstraZeneca declined to comment.
The latest arrests come months after Chinese police detained five current and former AstraZeneca employees during the summer, Bloomberg News reported at the time. The individuals all worked in the company’s oncology division and marketed cancer drugs. They have been questioned about the collection of patient data in ways that could have infringed the country’s data privacy laws, and the importation of drugs that hadn’t been approved for distribution in China.
In 2022, the National Health Security Administration, which oversees the country’s state medical insurance fund, probed AstraZeneca, made arrests and summoned some of its executives. The allegations at the time included tampering of patients’ gene—testing results to fraudulently claim reimbursement from national healthcare insurance funds for AstraZeneca’s cancer drugs. AstraZeneca said at the time that it had taken disciplinary action against some employees.
Beijing has stepped up its crackdowns on medical insurance fraud, as it seeks to better utilize the fund to cover more life-saving therapies and make them affordable to more Chinese patients.
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