By Li Hongmei

Huang Fengping, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning, is said to have been suspended following an investigation into his alleged involvement in economic crimes related to British pharmaceutical and healthcare giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Huang, born in 1965, is a well-known expert in neurosurgery, and previously served as vice president of the Huashan Hospital affiliated to the Fudan University in Shanghai. Insiders claim that Huang was taken away by related investigators in mid-September, and was recently taken back to Shanghai.

His position within the commission had already been taken down from its official website on Dec. 6, while a commission spokesman declined to comment further on Huang and the ongoing case against him, the paper said.

Aside from his position at the commission, Huang is also vice chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, but the committee's website has also deleted Huang from its leaders' list.

Insiders claim that Huang is involved in the GSK bribery case via the Huashan Hospital, while one of his close relatives also works for the multinational.

Executives of the British pharmaceutical giant are said to have bribed government officials, some medical associations and foundations, hospitals and doctors by inviting them to attend overseas academic seminars, covering their expenses during the trips, Chinese media said back in July.

On July 11, a report from the Ministry of Public Security said that GSK, in order to establish the channel to sell its drugs, had used travel agencies to directly bribe or indirectly sponsor some pharmaceutical industry associations, hospitals and doctors.