21st Century Business Herald reporter Ji Yuanyuan reports from Shanghai
On the evening of October 30th, AstraZeneca's official global and Chinese websites announced that Wang Lei, AstraZeneca's Global Executive Vice President, International Business Chairman, and China President, is cooperating with the investigation in China. AstraZeneca China is operating normally under the leadership of the current General Manager. If requested, AstraZeneca will fully cooperate with the investigation. AstraZeneca's global headquarters is located in Cambridge, UK, with operations in over 125 countries.
According to publicly available information, Wang Lei joined AstraZeneca China in March 2013 as Vice President of Digestive, Respiratory, and Anesthesia Business Unit. Before joining AstraZeneca, he spent nearly 20 years of his career at Roche Pharmaceuticals, experiencing both start-up and growth. In January 2017, Wang Lei was promoted to Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca Global, responsible for strategic and business development in the Asia Pacific region. In the more than three years of promotion, Wang Lei successfully promoted a new business model, expanded the new market of traditional drugs, promoted significant growth of AstraZeneca's business in China, and consolidated the company's leading position among foreign-funded pharmaceutical enterprises in China.
Therefore, AstraZeneca announced that Wang Lei has been promoted to Executive Vice President of the Asia Pacific region and has become a member of the Global Management Committee, reporting directly to the Global CEO. This marks the first time that Chinese local management talents have entered the top management of large multinational pharmaceutical companies. It is interesting that Wang Lei's career initially started as a foreign tour guide.
Under the leadership of Wang Lei, AstraZeneca China has also achieved significant performance in recent years. According to AstraZeneca's financial report, the company's performance was strong in the first half of 2024, with total revenue reaching $25.617 billion, a year-on-year increase of 18%. Among them, the revenue of the Chinese market in the first half of the year was 3.378 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 15%.
In fact, judging from his contributions in recent years, Wang Lei has helped many local innovative pharmaceutical enterprises enter the overseas market through AstraZeneca's innovation incubation capability. In an interview with 21st Century Business Herald, Wang Lei stated that the internationalization layout of biotech companies still needs to be deepened, and international cooperation can help them develop their business faster. Meanwhile, multinational pharmaceutical companies will also consider collaborating with these enterprises while improving their pipeline layout.
Compared with international enterprises, local enterprises still need to make up for the shortcomings of internationalization. For foreign-funded enterprises, accelerating the introduction of new products has always been a focus of attention, but we should consider how to better integrate with Chinese innovation, improve our ecosystem, and integrate more closely with Chinese capital. Wang Lei believes that we can achieve a "combination of Chinese and Western", make good use of the "bridgehead", and expand to developing countries.
As for why Wang Lei was investigated, the industry believes there is evidence to follow. Previously, Yin Min, Chief Commercial Officer of BeiGene Greater China, was investigated by regulatory authorities. Yin Min joined BeiGene in January 2022. Prior to this, she held various positions at AstraZeneca, including Chief Financial Officer, European Strategic Project Leader, Greater China Compliance Officer, Vice President of Business and Channels, General Manager of Hong Kong and Macau, and General Manager of China Oncology Division.
An anonymous industry insider revealed to 21st Century Business Herald reporters that Yin Min's investigation is related to the previous AstraZeneca "insurance fraud" incident. BeiGene has recently learned that an employee of the company is cooperating with the relevant investigation. Based on the current understanding, the incident involving the employee is not related to BeiGene
On January 29, 2022, the National Health Insurance Bureau reported that the staff of AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. were suspected of tampering with the genetic test results of tumor patients to defraud medical insurance funds. The head of the Fund Supervision Department of the National Health Insurance Bureau said that, in the early stage, according to the clues of public reports, the National Health Insurance Bureau urged Shenzhen to set up a joint task force composed of medical insurance, public security, health, market supervision and other departments to conduct in-depth investigation of the case, and all suspect had been arrested.
At that time, the National Healthcare Security Administration and the Ministry of Public Security held talks with relevant personnel of AstraZeneca China, reported on the progress of the phased investigation of the case, and required AstraZeneca China to strictly abide by laws and regulations, fully cooperate with relevant departments to carry out follow-up investigations, and immediately carry out internal investigations and rectification, plug marketing supervision loopholes, strengthen employee law-abiding education, effectively enhance integrity awareness, and timely expose the talks and rectification situation. AstraZeneca China, in accordance with the requirements of the interview, promptly communicated with the Shenzhen Medical Insurance Bureau and the Public Security Bureau to carry out follow-up investigations into the case, urged employees who engaged in similar behavior to voluntarily surrender, and published the case and self-examination rectification situation on the company's official website.
From the recent flight inspections initiated by the National Healthcare Security Administration, it can be seen that duplicate charges, excessive charges, and itemized charges account for approximately 36% of all illegal and irregular use of healthcare insurance funds; Exchange of drugs, medical consumables, diagnosis and treatment projects, and service facilities, accounting for about 17%; Violation of diagnosis and treatment norms, excessive diagnosis and treatment, excessive examination, and provision of other unnecessary medical services account for about 14%; Include medical expenses that are not covered by the medical insurance fund in the settlement of the medical insurance fund, accounting for about 14%
On February 10, 2022, the official account of Shenzhen Medical Insurance released a brief case report of AstraZeneca suspected of defrauding medical insurance: in July 2021, the Shenzhen Medical Insurance Bureau found that AstraZeneca staff were suspected of defrauding medical insurance according to the report, and then, under the guidance of the National Medical Insurance Bureau, cooperated with the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau and other relevant units to carry out special investigation; After meticulous work, the case was successfully solved, and a fraud gang suspected of tampering with the genetic test results of cancer patients to defraud medical insurance funds was dismantled. 17 individuals involved in the case were arrested, and criminal coercive measures were taken in accordance with the law.
As Wang Lei is cooperating with the investigation, its impact on China's business remains to be observed. After the news of Wang Lei's investigation was announced, Lai Minglong, Senior Vice President and General Manager of AstraZeneca in China, and General Manager of Oncology Business, mentioned in a letter to all AstraZeneca employees in China that the company has learned that President Wang Lei is accepting and cooperating with the investigation. Please rest assured that the company is operating normally, and I will continue to lead the development of AstraZeneca's various businesses in China. We will walk shoulder to shoulder with everyone and always fulfill our commitments to patients and employees
Lai Minglong emphasized that AstraZeneca has been deeply rooted in China for more than 30 years, benefiting and participating in the development of the country and the Chinese pharmaceutical industry, and is a part of China's power to benefit patients. We will always adhere to the unchanged original intention of loving patients. We hope that everyone will continue to do their job well, and my company management team and I will give everyone our full support