(Yicai) Feb. 7 -- AstraZeneca, the UK-Swedish pharmaceutical giant caught in a regulatory storm in China since last year, said it could face a fine of up to USD4.5 million in the Asian country over suspected unpaid drug import taxes.

AstraZeneca received a Notice of Transfer to the Prosecutor and an Appraisal Opinion from the Shenzhen City Customs Office regarding suspected unpaid importation taxes of USD900,000 in January, the firm said in a financial report yesterday. The import taxes relate to oncological drugs Imfinzi and Imjudo, it added.

AstraZeneca will be levied a fine of between one and five times the amount of unpaid import taxes if found liable, it noted, adding that it continues to fully cooperate with Chinese authorities.

Last October, Leon Wang, former China president of AstraZeneca, was detained by Chinese authorities for investigation on a large-scale medical insurance fraud committed by former employees, sparking a regulatory storm. The company revealed that several other current and former executives were also under investigation for illegally shipping drugs from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland in November.

In December, AstraZeneca appointed Iskra Reic, executive vice president of Vaccines & Immune Therapies at the company, to succeed Wang as international EVP. Reic will be responsible for "overall strategy and driving sustainable growth across China, Asian and Eurasian markets, Middle East and Africa, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand," the firm added.

AstraZeneca's China revenue rose 11 percent to USD6.4 billion at constant exchange rates last year from the prior one, accounting for 12 percent of its total income, according to the financial report.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev