China to Punish Hospital Staff for Kickbacks as Crackdown Widens
July 24, 2013 Leave a comment
China to Punish Hospital Staff for Kickbacks as Crackdown Widens
China will punish 39 hospital employees for taking illegal kickbacks from drugmakers, reflecting widening efforts to root out medical corruption that includes an investigation of GlaxoSmithKline Plc. (GSK)
The hospital staff received inducements totaling 2.82 million yuan ($460,000) from two pharmaceutical companies between January 2010 and December 2012, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday, citing the National Health and Family Planning Commission.China’s efforts to clean up its $350 billion health-care industry have gained prominence since police said last month that they were investigating Glaxo, the U.K.’s biggest drugmaker, for suspected economic crimes. The China Food and Drug Administration said last week it will “severely crack down” on fake medications, forged documents and bribery.
The judicial branch is handling the cases of vice chairman of the hospital’s trade union, along with two people in charge of the two pharmaceutical companies involved, according to Xinhua. Nine doctors who directly received kickbacks were dismissed, suspended or had their licenses revoked, Xinhua said.
Glaxo faces allegations of economic crimes involving 3 billion yuan of spurious travel and meeting expenses and trade in sexual favors, the ministry said last week.
AstraZeneca Plc (AZN), the U.K.’s biggest drugmaker after Glaxo, said July 22 that an employee was the focus of a “local police matter” in Shanghai. There’s “no reason” to believe the individual case is related to any other investigations, the London-based drugmaker said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Natasha Khan in Hong Kong at nkhan51@bloomberg.net
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