GlaxoSmithKline, which is being investigated in China for alleged bribery, is the latest foreign company to come under government scrutiny as Premier Li Keqiang tries to assuage anger over consumer safety breaches.

A senior Glaxo finance executive in Shanghai and employees in Beijing were detained as part of a corruption investigation, the South China Morning Post said Monday, citing an unidentified person from Shanghai’s drug industry.

Simon Steel, a Glaxo (NYSE: GSK) spokesman in London, declined to comment today on whether any staff have been arrested or detained.

China’s government reorganized its Food and Drug Administration in March to intensify scrutiny of safety breaches. It’s too early to tell if the Glaxo investigation is part of an industry wide crackdown, said Ronan Diot, Beijing- based chairman of the legal working group at the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

“In recent months, we’ve seen more actions and police investigations in relation to corruption in companies in China by Chinese authorities,” Diot said in an interview. “It sometimes happens that people are detained for a few hours or a few days.”

Senior executives at Glaxo China are suspected of economic crimes and are being investigated by Changsha public security officials, the city’s police said June 28 on its official blog, without elaborating. The probe, which began June 27, isn’t affecting Glaxo’s operations in China, Steel said.

Anonymous Tipster

Glaxo, which operates its North American headquarters in RTP,  shares rose 0.3 percent in London, where the company is based, early Tuesday. The stock has gained 28 percent this year including reinvested dividends, compared with a 17 percent return in the Bloomberg Europe Pharmaceutical Index.

An anonymous tipster made allegations that Glaxo’s sales staff in China was involved in widespread bribery of doctors to prescribe medication, in some cases for unauthorized uses, between 2004 and 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported June 13. Glaxo found no evidence of wrongdoing after a four-month probe into a whistle-blower’s claims of corruption and bribery, the company said at the time.

The same week, Glaxo said it fired the head of Chinese research and development after discovering that a paper the former employee helped write for the journal Nature Medicine contained data that had been misrepresented. A second individual submitted his resignation and three others have been placed on administrative leave, pending a final review, the company said in a statement June 10 on its website.

‘Still Unclear’

“We are still unclear on what the precise nature of the investigation is,” Steel, the Glaxo spokesman, said in an interview yesterday, referring to the current investigation. “We don’t know if it’s connected to the whistle-blower’s bribery and corruption allegations.”

Glaxo is one of several drugmakers that have been contacted by U.S. authorities in an industrywide probe of whether the companies engaged in violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The investigation, which began in 2010, covers practices in countries including China, according to Glaxo’s 2012 annual report. The company said it’s cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice.

In a separate U.S. probe, Glaxo last year agreed to pay $3 billion to resolve criminal and civil allegations that it illegally promoted prescription drugs and failed to report safety data. At the time, the settlement was the largest ever in a health-care fraud case.

Displaying Integrity

“On behalf of GSK, I want to express our regret and reiterate that we have learned from the mistakes that were made,” Chief Executive Officer Andrew Witty said in a statement at the time. “Since I became CEO, we have had a clear priority to ingrain a culture of putting patients first, acting transparently, respecting people inside and outside the organization and displaying integrity in everything we do.”

China’s government is focusing on strengthening its health system, including stamping out corruption. Last week, Li urged changes that would ensure all citizens had access to a basic medical system. Last year, seven managers and directors of key public hospitals in Shenzhen were given jail sentences for taking kickbacks, China Daily reported in October.

China is the world’s fastest-growing major market for pharmaceuticals. Sales will expand an average of 21 percent annually through 2016, said Jason Siu, a health-care analyst with RHB OSK Securities Hong Kong Ltd.

Growing Market

“More demand for quality imported prescription drugs has been generated on the back of health-care reform, urbanization and improving living standards in China,” Siu said in an interview. “The Chinese pharmaceutical space is still very attractive to both domestic and foreign drug companies.”

The Research and Development-Based Pharmaceutical Association Committee, a Beijing-based group representing foreign drug companies, is also seeking information on the Glaxo case, said Joseph Cho, the organization’s head.

“We don’t have any facts from the authorities, and we still need to find out what the investigations are about,” Cho said in an interview today. “We will take actions only after there are clear facts showing the violation of code by the member companies through our internal investigation procedures.”

Siemens AG, Europe’s largest engineering company, was sued earlier this year by a former compliance officer in its China unit who claimed he was fired after exposing evidence of hospital kickbacks. Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest automaker, said in March it planned to recall vehicles in China after drawing scrutiny from the nation’s quality inspector and state broadcaster over defective gearbox systems.

It followed recall laws introduced this year giving the regulator broader powers to order investigations and impose fines should manufacturers and importers fail to recall faulty products in a timely manner.