AstraZeneca Plc has strong compliance policies in China and is working closely with authorities following the detention of several employees in the country, chief executive officer Pascal Soriot said.

A Chinese government probe into Astra centers on eight or nine employees, Soriot said in a Bloomberg TV interview September 10, noting that the firm employs 12,000 people in the country. It’s “impossible” for every employee to act as a compliance officer, the CEO said.

Astra is “working very closely” with Chinese authorities on the matter, Soriot said, adding that the government actions are affecting other companies as well. “It’s a good thing, because we need to make sure we can operate in a very compliant environment,” he said. 

Chinese authorities are looking into the company’s collection of patient data to assess whether it infringed on data privacy laws, according to people familiar with the matter. Authorities are also looking into the involvement of some Astra employees in importing a liver cancer drug that has not been approved for distribution in mainland China, one of the people said. 

The China probe marks the latest hurdle for the U.K. company, with shares already being hit by disappointing data from a late-stage study of a lung cancer drug.

The stock fell as much as 5.6% in London on September 10 after a trial showed that while experimental cancer drug Dato-DXd helped some people live longer, results across all patients weren’t statistically significant.

The move in share price following the trial result doesn’t take account of the overall strength of Astra’s drug portfolio, the CEO said. The market is “reacting to events that happen on the day” rather than assessing long-term trends, he said. While the data are “not as perfect,” they still amount to “a strong set of results,” he said. 

The 65-year-old Soriot has used a risky bet on cancer treatments to remake Astra into a giant in the field of treatments for the disease. But the rare setback for one of the group’s oncology treatments is significant, given that Astra paid $1 billion for the drug in a deal announced in 2020. At the time, the company said it would pay an additional potential $1 billion when the drug met regulatory approvals, and up to $4 billion in sales-related milestones. 

Soriot also said in the interview that while it is not yet known what kind of approval Dato-DXd will receive, “the vast majority” of its potential is as a first-line treatment, rather than in use for patients who’ve already received at least one other treatment, which was the case in the most recent trial.