A Beigene Executive Is Under Investigation By Chinese Authorities

A Beigene executive is under investigation by Chinese authorities, according to several local media reports.

The executive was identified as Yin Min, according to Chinese business news outlets Yicai.com and Jiemian. Yin Min joined Beigene in January 2022 as Chief Commercial Officer for Greater China.

Beigene confirmed in a statement on Friday that an employee was cooperating with the ongoing investigation in China. According to Beigene's statement, it is Beigene's understanding that the investigation is not related to Beigene's activities.

Prior to joining Beigene, Yin spent 15 years at Astrazeneca, where she held various positions at the UK drugmaker, including head of oncology in China.

The Economic Observer newspaper reported that Yin Min had been detained for more than 48 hours by anti-smuggling authorities in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. The Chinese news outlet, citing multiple people familiar with the matter, said the investigation involved allegations of illegal imports during her tenure at Astrazeneca. Several Astrazeneca employees were also detained, according to the news site.

Last month, Bloomberg reported that five current and former employees of AstraZeneca were detained by Shenzhen police over the summer for possibly violating data privacy laws and illegally importing unapproved drugs. Bloomberg reported at the time, citing people familiar with the matter, that the person involved was linked to Astrazeneca's oncology division.

Before that, Chinese authorities in January 2022 accused some Astrazeneca employees of insurance fraud and tampering with genetic test results to get ineligible patients to take the company's EGFR inhibitor Tagrisso. The case began in Shenzhen.

He oversaw Astrazeneca's golden age in China, where it enjoyed double-digit sales growth for years until two price-cutting programs began eating into revenue from the company's generics and new drugs.

As for Beigene, until recently, China was the cancer specialist's main source of revenue. With the BTK inhibitor Brukinsa gaining ground in the United States and the PD-1 inhibitor Tevimbra beginning to roll out outside of China, Beigene's dependence on China is decreasing. In 2023, Beigene's product sales in China and outside China will be roughly equal. In the first six months of 2024, China accounted for 40 percent of Beigene's product sales.

In July, Beigene opened its flagship biologics manufacturing and innovation center in the United States in New Jersey. Earlier this month, Beigene officially launched Tevimbra in the U.S. at a price 10% lower than Merck & Co. 's Keytruda.

Although Beigene's commercial dependence on China is decreasing, the company has recently resumed disclosure of certain risk factors related to its business in China, as required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.