People familiar with the matter were reported by Reuters as saying that GSK confirmed the dismissal was for wrongdoing and misconduct that took place before mid-2013. However, the company refused to provide details related to the actual number of eliminations.
According to GSK’s annual report, the number of disciplinary cases against staff in China increased to 652 in 2014 from 48 in 2013.
GSK was quoted by the news agency as saying: "Where evidence of misconduct has been found, we take appropriate disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment."
"As we have previously said, we have increased our monitoring of expense claims and increased our compliance efforts. We also engaged an independent legal firm and external consultancies to review our operations in China."
In September 2014, GSK was fined £297m after being found guilty of bribery by the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court in China.
Investigations by the Chinese authorities against GSK were initiated in June 2013 and the verdict ended the investigations into the bribing of doctors by the company to promote use of its medicines.
The Chinese court also sentenced former head of GSK China Mark Reilly and other GSK executives to between two and four years in jail.
Image: GlaxoSmithKline headquarters in Brentford, London, England. Photo: courtesy of Maxwell Hamilton.