French pharma Sanofi accused of bribing doctors in China

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.