Drugs, bribes and travel agents - that's the gist of the growing scandal involving UK drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline. Chinese authorities say the company has been running an enormous and elaborate bribery network for the last six years - involving some 700 Chinese middlemen. The goal, they say, was to boost drug sales and prices.

A statement from the headquarters of GlaxoSmithKline said the company was "deeply concerned and disappointed" by these serious allegations. The statement went on to say: "GSK has zero tolerance for any behaviour of this nature."

After Chinese authorities announced their findings GSK disclosed that a company whistle-blower came forward this year, alleging malfeasance in GSK's China operations.

The company said an internal investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing. In an unrelated incident, GSK scientists working in the company's China Research Center misrepresented data published in a 2010 volume of the British scientific journal, Nature Medicine. After an internal investigation, GSK conceded the fraud.

In GSK's latest press release, the company said: "We have put an immediate stop to use of travel agencies that have been identified so far," said Phil Thomson, GSK spokesman.

The probe into GSK is part of a string of investigations into foreign firms and their pricing practices in China. It is, though, the highest profile corporate investigation of anything currently underway.

(CNTV.cn July 16, 2013)