Kill the chicken to scare the monkey is a well-known Chinese expression to describe the tactic of cracking down on the little guy in order to frighten the big beasts into stepping into line. In taking on GlaxoSmithKline, a gorilla of the global pharmaceuticals industry, Chinese authorities have gone straight for the monkey.
The Anglo-American drugs company, which employs about 5,000 people in China, has become embroiled in a scandal over alleged payment of bribes to doctors in return for prescribing GSK medicines. According to the allegations, inducements to often lowly paid doctors, hospitals and government officials were funnelled through travel agencies for fictitious or overbilled travel and conference services.
Chinese authorities have detained four GSK executives and banned its finance director from leaving the country. Abbas Hussain, GSK’s president of international operations, who was dispatched to China to deal with the fiasco, issued a statement admitting that senior GSK executives appeared to have breached Chinese law. The company would, he said, change its way of doing business and pass on resulting cost savings in the form of lower drug prices.