Chinese police charged the former British head of GlaxoSmithKline's China business, Mark Reilly, and other colleagues with corruption on Wednesday, following almost a year-long bribery probe.
Reilly was accused of ordering colleagues to commit bribery and two other GSK executives, Zhang Guowei and Zhao Hongyan, were accused of bribing government officials.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison -- harsher than many industry insiders had expected.
The corruption scandal, which surfaced last summer, involves GSK channeling nearly $500 million in bribes through a network of travel agencies to government officials, hospitals and doctors.
Read the Reuters press release