CHINESE police accused GlaxoSmithKline executive Mark Reilly today of running a huge scheme bribing doctors and hospitals to use its drugs.

It was the first time a foreign GSK employee in China had been accused in an investigation which started last July. 

Mr Reilly operated a “massive bribery network,” said Ministry of Public Security economic crimes unit deputy director Gao Feng. 

Mr Gao said the case had been handed over to prosecutors for formal indictment.

The GSK executive will face charges of ordering his sales team to bribe doctors, hospital officials and health institutions to use GSK products from January 2009. 

“GSK’s bribery activities ran through its entire operations in China,” Mr Gao said.

He added that dozens of other people were also implicated in the scam, resulting in “illegal revenue” worth billions of yuan.

Mr Reilly was GSK senior vice president of pharmaceuticals for China and Hong Kong and former general manager for China.

Police had previously only identified four Chinese employees of GSK who, they said, had confessed to bribery.

The company charged prices up to seven times the level charged in other countries, Mr Gao said. 

He told reporters that, before a patent on one of its drugs had been due to expire in 2012, GSK paid bribes to discourage hospitals from switching to cheaper generic versions.

“The more it bribed, the more drugs it could sell,” he noted, adding that GSK employees had obstructed previous inquiries by bribing investigators and other government officials.