CHINA has fined UK pharmaceuticals firm GlaxoSmithKline £297m after a court found it guilty of bribery.

The record penalty follows allegations the drug firm paid out bribes to doctors and hospitals in order to have their products promoted.

GSK's former head of Chinese operations, Mark Reilly, has been given a three year prison sentence - although it has been suspended for four years.

China state media said other executives faced sentences of two to four years.

The guilty verdict was delivered after a one-day trial, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Chinese authorities first announced they were investigating GSK in July last year, in what has become the biggest corruption scandal to hit a foreign firm in years.

GSK, which employs about 1,000 North-East workers in Barnard Castle, County Durham, said it had "published a statement of apology to the Chinese government and its people".

"Reaching a conclusion in the investigation of our Chinese business is important, but this has been a deeply disappointing matter for GSK," said chief executive Sir Andrew Witty in a statement.

"We have and will continue to learn from this. GSK has been in China for close to a hundred years and we remain fully committed to the country and its people," he said.

"We will also continue to invest directly in the country to support the government's health care reform agenda and long-term plans for economic growth."