A CHINESE court fined British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline 3 billion yuan (£300 million) yesterday sentenced its former country manager and others to prison for bribing doctors and hospitals to use its products.

The fine was the biggest ever imposed by a Chinese court.

The case highlighted the widespread use of cash bribes to doctors and hospitals by sellers of drugs and medical equipment in the country’s massive health service.

Former country manager Mark Reilly and several others were sentenced to two to four years by a court in the central city of Changsha.

The police ministry said in May that Mr Reilly was accused of operating a “massive bribery network.”

Investigators believed that Mr Reilly ordered his salespeople to pay doctors, hospital officials and health institutions to use GSK products, beginning in January 2009.

That resulted in hundreds of millions of pounds in “illegal revenue” for the British drug producer.

Police previously identified four Chinese employees of GSK who confessed to bribery.

GSK announced in December 2013 that it would stop offering “financial support” to doctors and other healthcare professionals to promote its products.

Police said earlier that GSK employees funnelled as much as 3 billion yuan (£300m) through travel agencies and consulting firms, which kicked back some of that money for use as bribes.

GSK claimed previously that it opposed bribery and was co-operating with the investigation.

A second foreign drugmaker AstraZeneca said in July 2013 that police in Shanghai were investigating one of its salespeople.

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