German drug giant Bayer latest target of graft probe

The German pharmaceutical firm Bayer is the latest target of the mainland's ongoing investigation into malpractice in the pharmaceutical industry.

The All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce contacted a Bayer office on the mainland in relation to an investigation into anti-trust offences, Bayer's spokesman Guenter Forneck told the South China Morning Post in an e-mailed statement.

"We assume that this contact is related to a wider investigation into the pharmaceutical industry in China," he wrote.

The German company is the latest pharmaceutical giant to be drawn into an investigation that first came to light two months ago when police in Changsha, Hunan province, began an investigation into alleged "economic crimes" by employees of the British drug firm GlaxoSmithKline.

US firm Eli Lilly, the French firm Sanofi, the Danish firms Novo Nordisk and H. Lundbeck, the British firm AstraZeneca and the Belgian firm UCB have also said that they were contacted by investigators.

In July, the National Development and Reform Commission said it was extending its investigation to cover 60 international and domestic drugmakers.