On the evening of October 30th, the official website of AstraZeneca China released a statement stating that Wang Lei, AstraZeneca's Global Executive Vice President, International Business Chairman, and China President, is cooperating with the investigation in China. The statement stated that AstraZeneca China is operating normally under the leadership of the current general manager. If requested, AstraZeneca will fully cooperate with the investigation.
According to public information, in March 2013, Wang Lei joined AstraZeneca China as Vice President of Digestive, Respiratory, and Anesthesia Business Unit; In December 2014, Wang Lei was promoted to President of AstraZeneca China; 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 recent years, AstraZeneca has been embroiled in investigations and public opinion turmoil. In July 2021, the Shenzhen Medical Security Bureau found that AstraZeneca staff were suspected of fraud and insurance fraud based on reported clues. In response to the situation that AstraZeneca's staff 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 in January 2022 that, in the early stage, according to the clues of mass reports, the National Health Insurance Bureau urged Shenzhen to set up a joint special case team 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.
Since the second half of 2021, multiple executives and employees of AstraZeneca China have been investigated, detained, or sentenced on charges of insurance fraud, smuggling, and infringement of citizens' personal information.