AstraZeneca Senior Executive Detained in China

The AstraZeneca stand is seen at the Zhejiang Medical Equipment Expo in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, on Oct. 31, 2024. STR/AFP via Getty Images

Chinese authorities have detained AstraZenaca’s Executive Vice President International and China President Leon Wang, the company has confirmed. 

A spokesperson for the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant told The Epoch Times on Thursday that Wang is in detention. The company said it does not know the details of the probe, and it does not believe it’s related to a large three-year health insurance fraud case involving the company.

Wang’s detention was revealed a week after AstraZeneca said the China-born senior executive was under investigation.

On Oct. 30, AstraZeneca published a statement saying Wang was “cooperating with an ongoing investigation by Chinese authorities” and that the company would fully cooperate with the investigation if requested.

On Tuesday, Chinese state-controlled financial media company Yicai published a speculative report suggesting Wang may have been under investigation in relation to the fraud case, in which around 100 former employees were convicted of altering medical records to sell lung cancer medicine Tagrisso on patients’ medical insurance.

The company’s shares plunged more than 8 percent following the report.

On Wednesday, AstraZeneca’s Chief Financial Officer Aradhana Sarin briefed sell-side analysts to quell their concerns.

The company’s investor relations team on Wednesday also briefed shareholders on the issue.

According to AstraZeneca, the company is not aware of any current or former senior executives being implicated in the fraud case.

There is a separate case related to the alleged illegal importation of oncology medicines into mainland China and the inappropriate collection of patient data. Two current and two former senior executives are known to be under investigation, but AstraZeneca has no further details.

AstraZeneca, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, has invested heavily in China, the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical market.

The company said that in the first half of 2024, China sales made up 13 percent of AstraZeneca’s overall sales.

AstraZeneca noted that Mike Lai, the company’s China general manager, is in charge of its businesses in China, which continue to operate as normal. Lai, who became the company’s China GM in 2019 and assumed additional responsibilities as BU Head for Oncology from January 2024, remains the GM.

According to the company’s annual financial report, as of 2023, AstraZeneca was the largest pharmaceutical company in China, which had become the company’s third-largest market.

Reacting on Tuesday to the report that led to the plummeting of its stock prices, AstraZeneca said, “as a matter of policy,” it does not “comment on speculative media reports, including those related to ongoing investigations in China.”

The company said earlier it would “continue to deliver our life-changing medicines to patients in China, and our operations are ongoing.”

Barclays analysts said in a note that the share sell-off “feels far overdone” and current share levels represent a “very attractive entry point” ahead of 2025 when a number of highly anticipated clinical trial data readouts are expected.

The probes into AstraZeneca coincided with a series of raids and arrests of foreign companies’ employees in China that had a chilling effect on foreign investors.

In recent years, the Chinese regime has updated a host of laws and regulations to control the outflow of information from China.

Japan’s Astellas Pharma said in August that Chinese prosecutors had indicted one of its employees, who has been detained in China since March 2023 on suspicion of espionage.

U.S. due diligence firm Mintz Group was fined $1.5 million after its Beijing office was raided in May 2023.

Dorothy Li and Reuters contributed to this report.