China has
fined UK pharmaceuticals firm GlaxoSmithKline $490m (£297m) after a court found
it guilty of bribery.
The record
penalty follows allegations the drug giant paid out bribes to doctors and
hospitals in order to have their products promoted.
GSK's former
head of Chinese operations, Mark Reilly, has been given a three year prison
sentence - although it has been suspended for four years.
China state
media said other executives faced sentences of two to four years.
The guilty
verdict was delivered after a one-day trial at a court in Changsha, according
to the Xinhua news agency.
Chinese
authorities first announced they were investigating GSK in July last year, in
what has become the biggest corruption scandal to hit a foreign firm in years.
GSK said it
had "published a statement of apology to the Chinese government and its
people".
"Reaching
a conclusion in the investigation of our Chinese business is important, but
this has been a deeply disappointing matter for GSK," said chief executive
Sir Andrew Witty in a statement.
"We
have and will continue to learn from this. GSK has been in China for close to a
hundred years and we remain fully committed to the country and its
people," he said.
"We
will also continue to invest directly in the country to support the
government's health care reform agenda and long-term plans for economic
growth."
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