Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG said on Thursday it had been visited by a unit of China's antitrust regulator, amid increasing scrutiny over business practices in the pharmaceutical sector in the country.

"We understand that a local government unit in Hangzhou visited Roche's offices on May 21, but the specific details are not yet clear. We will cooperate fully with the work of the relevant government department," Roche said in a statement emailed to Reuters on Thursday.

A Basel-based spokesman added that the authority was a local unit of China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), one of the country's antitrust regulators, and the body which usually takes the lead on probes into corruption.

Last week Chinese authorities charged executives at British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline over bribery and corruption, with legal and industry sources saying that the crackdown against the pharmaceuticals sector was now likely to get more intense.

GSK has said it wants "to reach a resolution that will enable the company to continue to make an important contribution to the health and welfare of China and its citizens."