Chinese authorities have formally indicted two corporate investigators, a Briton and an American, for allegedly illegally obtaining and selling private information.

Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline, under investigation on suspicion its employees bribed Chinese doctors, has admitted some of its executives may have broken the law.

GlaxoSmithKline executives in China have confessed to bribery and tax violations, the country’s security ministry said yesterday during one of a string of investigations into foreign firms in the world’s second-biggest economy.