By Ben Blanchard, Fang Yan, Ben Hirschler, Michael Perry and Robert Birsel

At least 18 more people have been detained in China in connection with a corruption scandal involving British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, state media reported, giving more details on an investigation that has rocked the company.

China's state radio reported late on Friday on its website that police in the central city of Zhengzhou had "recently held, in accordance with the law, 18 GlaxoSmithKline employees and some medical personnel."

It provided no details of the detentions nor say exactly when they happened.

The Zhengzhou police news department, reached by telephone, said they were "unaware of the situation" and declined to comment further.

A GSK spokesman in London declined to comment on the report.

Chinese police have previously announced the detention of four Chinese GSK executives in connection with allegations that the drugmaker funneled up to three billion yuan ($489 million) to travel agencies to facilitate bribes to doctors and officials.

GSK has admitted that some Chinese executives appeared to have broken the law but Chief Executive Andrew Witty said on Wednesday that head office had no knowledge of the alleged wrongdoing.

The official Xinhua news agency said that certain GSK employees were "suspected of offering bribes to doctors, asking them to prescribe more drugs in order to grow sales volume, and in the meantime pushing up drug prices".

Xinhua cited an interview with a man surnamed Li, who it said was a regional sales manager for GSK responsible for selling respiratory drugs to more than 10 hospitals in Zhengzhou, who gave details of how the corruption worked.

"They invited doctors to join high-end academic conferences to help the practitioners increase influence in their fields. They also established good personal relations with doctors by catering to their pleasures or offering them money, in order to make them prescribe more drugs," Xinhua said.

"A 35-year-old female medical representative surnamed Wang, working under Li, said she entered doctors' offices to act as their assistant, and meet their needs as much as possible, even their sexual desires," the report added.

"Wang said GSK China's executives already knew this, and some executives gave clear directives to the sales department to offer bribes to doctors with money or opportunities to attend academic conferences."

However, many doctors got money even when the lectures did not actually exist, Xinhua said.

"Wang just forged lecture materials in order to obtain reimbursements from the company," it added.

"According to Li and Wang, the company set the target of raising drug sales by 30 percent annually in the last two years, and the target can only be achieved by pushing doctors to prescribe more if there are no increases in the number of patients," Xinhua reported.

GSK this week appointed one of its top European executives as the new head of operations in China.

葛兰素史克在华贿赂案发酵 又有18人被拘

中国官媒报道称，至少又有18名与葛兰素史克 贿赂丑闻相关的人员被拘。

中央人民广播电台周五晚些时候在其网站报道中称，郑州警方近日按照公安部要求成立专案组，对葛兰素史克（中国）公司进行立案侦查，该公司相关人员18名被拘。

报道没有提供进一步详情。路透电话联系郑州警方媒体部门寻求置评，后者回应称“不了解情况”。

葛兰素史克驻伦敦的一位发言人拒绝对上述报道发表评论。

中国公安部周五晚些时候发布公告称，葛兰素史克中国公司业务总经理马克锐（Mark Reilly）将于近期返回中国配合调查。

“公安部对葛兰素史克总公司的态度表示欢迎，将为公司审计团队开展工作提供必要的帮助，希望葛兰素史克中国公司尽快恢复正常的生产和运营，”公安部称。

葛兰素史克涉嫌向旅行社等机构转移30亿元人民币，以便向医生和官员行贿。该公司四名中国高管已被警方拘留.

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