Further woes for GSK in China

A British private investigator and his wife, hired to help the pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) after it was accused of corruption in China, have been charged with illegally collecting private data.

The Chinese media have reported that inquiries by Peter Humphrey and Yu Yingzen, through their agency ChinaWhys, included gathering people’s household registration information, car numbers, family details, dates of leaving and entering the country, telephone records and corporate files.

GSK recruited ChinaWhys when its China general manager Mark Reilly and two Chinese colleagues were charged with spending millions of US dollars to bribe doctors, hospital staff and others to use GSK drugs. The company insists it does not tolerate bribery and is co-operating with the Chinese police, and merely asked Humphrey and Yu to investigate a breach of privacy and security involving the filming of Reilly in bed with a woman.

The trial was due to start in closed court in Shanghai on 7 August 2014. It will now be public but has been postponed. Media reports say the couple, who have been in custody since July 2013, are likely to get three years’ jail if convicted.