AstraZeneca shares fall on report of potential China probe fallout
Rewrites with AstraZeneca statement, details from report and background, change media key words to ASTRAZENECA-STOCKS
Nov 5 (Reuters) -AstraZeneca AZN.L shares on Tuesdayrecorded their worst daysince March 2020 after areport that dozens of the drugmaker's seniorexecutives in China couldbe implicated in the largest insurance fraud case in the country's pharma sector in years.
The Anglo-Swedish company, which has invested heavily in the world's No. 2 pharmaceuticals market,said last week that its China president, Leon Wang, was under investigation and that the drugmaker would cooperate with authorities.
AstraZeneca had not said what the investigation was about or whether Wang, who grew up in China and has been with the company for more than a decade, had been detained by authorities.
The investigation by Chinese authorities has now expanded to include the public security bureau, supervisory commission and other relevant bodies, financial media company Yicai reported on Tuesday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The report added that medical representatives have been previously found to fake prescriptions for AstraZeneca's lung cancer drug, Tagrisso, to allow patients to buy it through the state's medical insurance program.
"As a matter of policy, we do not comment on speculative media reports including those related to ongoing investigations in China," AstraZeneca said.
"If requested, we will fully cooperate with the Chinese authorities," the company added and said that its operations and delivery of medicines were ongoing in China.
AstraZeneca is one of the biggest multinational drugmakers in China, which accounts for 13% of its overall revenue. It said last year it would build a $450 million factory in the country and has also signed several licensing deals with Chinese firms.
However, AstraZeneca's more than 30-year presence in the country has not been without challenges over prescriptions and sales.
In 2022, Chinese authorities had summoned AstraZeneca officials over an investigation of suspected medical insurance fraud by its employees, and had ordered that the drugmaker tighten its marketing activities.
The FTSE 100 .FTSE component fell as much as 8.4% on Tuesday tohit a seven-month low of 10,118 pence and was the second-biggest percentage loser on the blue-chip index.
Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Maju Samuel
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
