Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-08-09
French
pharmaceutical company Sanofi allegedly bribed over 500 doctors in China in
2007, an insider recently told Guangzhou's 21st Century Business Herald.
The
whistleblower named "bacon" told the paper that the Paris-based
company had paid 1.69 million yuan (US$276,000) to 503 doctors across 79
hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Guangzhou under the gusie of a
"research fund" before and after November 2007.
In
addition, Sanofi also paid cash or made gifts worth more than 20,000 yuan
(US$3,300) a month to 43 doctors in another five hospitals in Beijing, the
informant revealed.
Although
the informant insisted on anonymity, several former staff members at Sanofi
were of the view that the whistleblower is or was probably a senior executive
at Sanofi China, given the high-level information to which he has access.
According
to the information, the French company focused on the promotion of two of its
pharmaceutical drugs — irbesartan tablets and irbesartan and hydrochlorthiazide
tablets — both used for treating primary hypertension.
The leak
also indicated that Sanofi paid 80 yuan (US$13) for each case, and the company
also set clear targets for its sales, with actual sales invariably surpassing
the target.
The
informant also pointed out that some doctors filed patient cases themselves in
earnest to claim cash reimbursements, but most were just perfunctory, knowing
that it was a "trade-off deal," with some even asking the firm's
staff to fill out the form.
Even though
the firm's representatives knew that the filings were being falsified, they did
not dare tell the doctors openly for fear of offending them or having them
refuse to prescribe their drugs.
Sanofi,
which ranked 219th on the 2013 Fortune Global 500, set up offices in China
three decades ago and currently employs more than 6,500 people.
The company
responded to the report by saying that an investigation was underway to verify
the authenticity of the accusations.
High blood
pressure is one of the most common diseases in China. According to the Chinese
Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the ratio of adults in the country
with high blood pressure was as high as 33.5%, or 330 million people, in 2010.
As there
are over 100 pharmaceutical products used for treating high blood pressure in
the country, the two French drugs are not irreplaceable, and the price of
generic drugs produced by other countries is only about half the cost of
Sanofi's products.
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