An executive with British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has been charged with leading a vast network to bribe doctors and hospitals to use the company's drugs, Chinese police said on Wednesday.

Mark Reilly from Britain, the former China head of GSK, and two Chinese executives are also suspected of bribing officials in the Beijing and Shanghai industry and commerce departments, Xinhua News Agency quoted police in Hunan province as saying.

The case is considered the biggest corruption scandal to engulf a foreign company in China since that involving Rio Tinto in 2009, which resulted in four executives from the mining giant being imprisoned for between seven and 14 years for bribery and theft of trade secrets.