(Yicai) Nov. 5 -- Dozens of senior executives at AstraZeneca China have been implicated in an ongoing insurance fraud case as of last week, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Leon Wang, president of AstraZeneca China, is cooperating with the investigation by Chinese authorities, which has now expanded to include the public security bureau, supervisory commission, and other relevant bodies, the person said. The key figure who should have cooperated with the inquiry was another senior executive at AstraZeneca China, they added.

The British-Swedish drugmaker announced on Oct. 30 that Wang was under official investigation, a disclosure that has depressed the Cambridge-based company’s share price [LON: AZN] by about 7 percent since then. The stock was trading 3 percent lower at GBP107.15 (USD139.15) as of 12.29 p.m. local time in London today.

In April 2021, an AstraZeneca medical representative in Yibin, Sichuan province was found to have faked prescriptions for the lung cancer drug Tagrisso so that patients could buy it through insurance. To boost sales of Tagrisso, staff forged positive genetic testing reports to defraud the health insurance fund, even colluding with genetic testing companies to funnel benefits.

Over the past three years, insurance fraud cases involving AstraZeneca have surfaced in Shenzhen as well as the provinces of Fujian and Jiangxi. Employees implicated in these have pointed the finger at regional managers, district managers, and even senior executives.

These cases amount to the largest insurance fraud in the nation’s pharmaceutical sector for years, a person familiar with the matter pointed out. So far, dozens of AstraZeneca staff have been convicted of fraud, with the main offenders receiving prison sentences of over 10 years.

An insider at a drugmaker noted that AstraZeneca's high sales targets put extreme pressure on medical reps, which has been a major factor in the firm’s compliance issues.

Editor: Emmi Laine