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The funny part is that they were charged by the Chinese government. In China.
The first thought that came to mind was that GSK's rep must have failed to pay enough tribute to someone who unexpectedly had a lot of clout. But looking at it optimistically, maybe the Chinese government really is making an honest effort to universally cut down on their cultural practices that are regarded as corruption in post-industrial cultures.
Kickback schemes and the like are not unusual in the business and isn't limited to GSK. Isolated events are seem to be pretty regularly flushed out inside the US since I notice news articles about it maybe once every couple of years or so.
Also, doctors, even little private practices, in the USA get "visits" from big pharma reps....I was at an office once waiting for a doc when a rep came in with free tickets to some concert for the secretaries. He displayed his new "goods" like any other salesman, in a case he brought. Was a little strange watching it.
Per China, they indeed are trying to root out corruption from the top down, with their own top people, including generals and top state officials. I think it's a house-cleaning mostly, however, they def want to stop allowing foreign firms, especially western ones, from getting too much of a local toehold in their country, giving room to local firms to establish their own brands. I can understand that.
The issue is, they are doing that to many international companies now, especially western-based. Car parts, software, big pharma, you name it.
After all is said, they CAN do what they want, BUT if they want foreign money/investment, and do not want a western backlash of their trade, they might want to tone it down pretty much immediately.
Watch how the Alibaba shares trade for evidence of how this plays out now, in the next few months..
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