[British drugmaker AstraZeneca has appointed Iskra Reic as its new China head, replacing Leon Wang who has been detained by authorities in the country. Wang, who oversaw the development of AstraZeneca’s Covid shot, is on extended leave from the company while under investigation in China. Investors have been nervous about AstraZeneca since the company revealed Wang’s status in October, with many drawing parallels to a massive bribery scandal involving rival British pharma firm GlaxoSmithKline.
Reic, an AstraZeneca veteran, will move to Shanghai to take up her new enlarged role, which includes leading the company’s vaccines and immune therapies unit. AstraZeneca is the most valuable company on the FTSE 100, an index of the largest 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The company confirmed in October that Wang was “cooperating with an ongoing investigation” and later confirmed he had been detained. It said it had no further information about the case. Wang and other employees of AstraZeneca are being investigated by Chinese officials for allegedly violating laws around insurance fraud, according to Yicai, a Chinese state-owned financial media outlet.
The investigation has resulted in the sentencing of about 100 former employees, as well as another probe into the illegal importation of cancer drugs into mainland China. AstraZeneca’s CFO Aradhana Sarin said in a call with investors last month that the firm was aware of the ongoing medical insurance fraud investigation.
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