Huang
Fengping, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and
Family Planning, is said to have been suspended following an investigation into
his alleged involvement in economic crimes related to British pharmaceutical
and healthcare giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), reports the Guangzhou-based 21st
Century Business Herald.
Huang, born
in 1965, is a well-known expert in neurosurgery, and previously served as vice
president of the Huashan Hospital affiliated to the Fudan University in
Shanghai. Insiders claim that Huang was taken away by related investigators in
mid-September, and was recently taken back to Shanghai.
His
position within the commission had already been taken down from its official
website on Dec. 6, while a commission spokesman declined to comment further on
Huang and the ongoing case against him, the paper said.
Aside from
his position at the commission, Huang is also vice chairman of the Shanghai
Municipal Committee of Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, but the
committee's website has also deleted Huang from its leaders' list.
Insiders
claim that Huang is involved in the GSK bribery case via the Huashan Hospital,
while one of his close relatives also works for the multinational.
GSK,
meanwhile, is facing the biggest risk in China since it entered the nation in
1908 as police are investigating whether its executives are involved in alleged
economic crimes, the Beijing-based Economic Observer reported in mid-July.
Executives
of the British pharmaceutical giant are said to have bribed government
officials, some medical associations and foundations, hospitals and doctors by
inviting them to attend overseas academic seminars, covering their expenses
during the trips, the Economic Observer said.
On July 11,
a report from the Ministry of Public Security said that GSK, in order to
establish the channel to sell its drugs, had used travel agencies to directly
bribe or indirectly sponsor some pharmaceutical industry associations,
hospitals and doctors.
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