(Yicai) Nov. 25 -- Some former employees at AstraZeneca who were convicted for their involvement in the UK-Swedish drugmaker’s insurance fraud in China are now pointing their fingers at the company’s executives.

AstraZeneca China’s president and marketing head were aware of the genetic tests’ abnormally high positive rate and encouraged the further increase in positive results, according to the defense lawyer of one of the sentenced individuals. The company should be investigated and, if found guilty, refund the health insurance fund.

In 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. Over the past three years, insurance fraud cases involving AstraZeneca have surfaced in Shenzhen, as well as Fujian and Jiangxi provinces.

In June, a former sales manager at AstraZeneca surnamed Diao was sentenced to 11 years and six months in prison and fined CNY200,000 (USD27,600), while his direct superior Kan got 13 years and six months. Both former employees objected to the verdict, claiming they were simply executing the firm’s strategies and policies.

The first-instance judgment was unclear and had insufficient evidence to determine Diao knew about the falsified test and ordered his subordinates to falsify the reports, Diao’s lawyer Qin Shun told Yicai.

AstraZeneca cannot be investigated for criminal liabilities even if it is proven to have been involved in the case, Qin said. However, the company can be ordered to pay the amount due to the medical insurance fund.

It was common for AstraZeneca’s representatives to tamper with test reports, a former sales manager in Fujian surnamed Luo said. After the case in Shenzhen, the company asked employees to quit the WeChat group, delete the group’s content, destroy evidence, and refer to medical representatives for how to deal with external investigations, Luo added.

Luo was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison and was fined CNY300,000.

On Oct. 30, AstraZeneca said its China President Leon Wang was cooperating in an investigation by Chinese authorities related to the insurance fraud case. Yicai learned from people familiar with the matter that dozens of senior executives at AstraZeneca China are also involved.

Editor: Futura Costaglione