Pfizer quizzed as part of China corruption probe 

Pfizer said in the filing it was producing records in accordance with the request, but did not elaborate further. File picture.

Drug giant Pfizer has received informal requests from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice for information on its China operations, according to a regulatory filing lodged by the company this week. 

Pfizer said the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act unit within the Sec asked for information on its business in China in August. The same unit within the US Department of Justice made a similar request in June, which was disclosed in a previous filing.

Pfizer said in the filing it was producing records in accordance with the request, but did not elaborate further.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is an anti-bribery law enacted in 1977 that prohibits payments to foreign officials to win business. In 2012, Pfizer paid about $60m (€51m) to US authorities to settle bribery cases it found among operations in eastern Europe, China and the Middle East.

China has been considered a big growth market for global pharmaceutical companies. But the multinationals have faced challenges amid tightened regulations and heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington, as well as China’s efforts to boost its own generic drugmakers.

In 2014, British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc was fined about $489m by Chinese regulators for bribery.

Bloomberg