British drug company GlaxoSmithKline says it will stop offering financial support to doctors and other health-care professionals to promote its products.

The change comes months after GSK was hit by an ongoing investigation of alleged bribery by its employees in China and signals a major shift in the way the company operates.

Chief Executive Andrew Witty said in a statement released Tuesday that the changes are meant to bring "greater clarity and confidence that whenever we talk to a doctor, nurse or other prescriber, it is patients' interests that always come first."

GSK says it will no longer pay health-care professionals to speak on its behalf to audiences that can prescribe medicines and will stop providing direct financial support to professionals to attend medical conferences.