GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) is adding new products in China and hiring “a few hundred” more salespeople to promote them, betting that health-care reforms will widen access to drugs and make up for state-mandated price cuts. The drugmaker will expand its sales force of 4,000 in China this year after hiring more than 700 people in 2011, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Witty said today in Beijing. Glaxo of London is in talks with China’s government to introduce cervical cancer and rotavirus vaccines after winning approval to sell three new drugs last year, including prostate treatment Avodart and Volibris for hypertension, Witty said. The country, which ranks as the world’s fastest-growing market for medicines, is expanding the list of subsidized drugs and centralizing purchases to cut prices and improve access for its 1.3 billion people.
