AstraZeneca Agrees to Pay $5.5 Million to Settle Alleged Bribery Probe

By Denise Roland 

U.S. regulators said AstraZeneca PLC had agreed to pay $5.5 million to settle an investigation into alleged bribery at the drugmaker's Chinese and Russian units.

The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that staff there made payments and gave gifts and other benefits to state-employed health care workers, such as doctors, in return for increased prescriptions, as far back as 2005.

It claimed those payments were disguised in various ways such as fabricated speaker events and fraudulent expense claims. The SEC said that through at least 2010, AstraZeneca failed to put in place internal accounting controls in these two regions, and that the company recorded all the improper payments as bona fide business expenses.

The probe related to alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a far-reaching law which enables U.S. authorities to prosecute companies for wrongdoing committed overseas.

AstraZeneca agreed to settle the investigation without admitting or denying wrongdoing, the SEC said. The regulator added that AstraZeneca had already taken steps to address shortcomings in its compliance program before the SEC probe and had continued to do so in response to the findings of the investigation.

The penalty comprises a payment of $4.325 million representing the profits AstraZeneca gained from its alleged misconduct, plus interest of $822,000 and a fine of $375,000. The SEC said the size of the fine reflected that Astra had cooperated with the investigation.

A spokesman for AstraZeneca said the company was "pleased to have the resolution of these matters."

Write to Denise Roland at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 31, 2016 07:34 ET (11:34 GMT)

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