(Yicai) Nov. 13 -- AstraZeneca does not have new information about the detention of its China president in connection with an ongoing case of medical insurance fraud, the chief executive officer of the UK pharmaceutical giant said yesterday.

Leon Wang is in talks with his attorney, Pascal Soriot said in his first public remark about Wang's detention.

AstraZeneca is paying a lot of attention to problems in the China market and is taking measures to enhance compliance. It is untrue that the Cambridge-based company lacks regulations on compliance, he added.

AstraZeneca employs over 16,000 people in China. Unfortunately, some are tempted to maximize sales value, Soriot said.

AstraZeneca has enhanced its compliance team of over 200 members in China, introduced an on-site compliance officer, and is using artificial intelligence to review sales staffs' fee reports to monitor any misconduct, he said.

AstraZeneca remains committed to the China market and no changes have occurred to its plan to build a USD450 million plant in the country, Soriot said. AstraZeneca has never publicly discussed spinning off its Chinese business, he added.

In July 2021, employees at AstraZeneca’s Shenzhen branch were accused of tampering with patients’ gene tests to make them eligible for medical insurance reimbursements. In the end, 17 people were arrested, the National Healthcare Security Administration and its Shenzhen branch said in separate statements in 2022. But the case still rumbles on and there have been more arrests of senior executives from different companies lately.

Apart from Wang, four other AstraZeneca executives are currently being probed, two who are still in office and two who used to work for the firm, for allegedly shipping medicine illegally to the mainland from Hong Kong, the drugmaker said at an investor conference on Nov. 6.

China has been a driving force of AstraZeneca’s growth, but this growth is now slowing down, institutional investors told Yicai. It is becoming harder to make money in China due to factors such as the national medical insurance bulk buy program, which grants access to the country’s vast market but greatly squeezes prices, as well as hikes in marketing and distribution fees.

AstraZeneca raked in revenue of USD13.6 billion in the third quarter, according to its latest financial report released yesterday. China sales surged 15 percent year on year to account for 12 percent of total earnings at USD1.7 billion.

Editors: Xu Wei, Kim Taylor