【英语中国】中国本土药企卷入“贿赂门”

Beijing has taken the first step to extend its probe of pharmaceutical corruption in China to domestic drug companies, with state television broadcasting claims that a Chinese drug company bribed doctors with overseas trips.

Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group said yesterday it had set up a team to investigate allegations in a report by CCTV that sales teams based in the eastern province of Jiangsu treated doctors to free travel to Thailand and Taiwan in return for their attendance at an hour-long information session about their drugs. The company is 60 per cent owned by Hong Kong-listed Sino Biopharmaceutical.

It was the first time that Chinese official media had named a local company in connection with alleged pharmaceutical corruption.

In July, Beijing said it was investigating UK-based GlaxoSmithKline for allegedly making illegal travel payments to doctors. Several other foreign drug companies have since also been accused of paying illegal incentives to doctors to prescribe their drugs.

Foreign and local analysts, doctors, lawyers and drug industry insiders say incentive payments are more common in domestic companies than in foreign ones, which are more strictly regulated by overseas anti-bribery laws such as the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The EU Chamber of Commerce has complained that Chinese authorities are unfairly targeting foreign pharmaceutical companies. “I feel it is a little bit unfair that the foreign companies who are the most serious about [best practices] have been the most investigated and the most discriminated [against],” Bruno Gensburger, head of the chamber’s pharmaceuticals working group, said last week.

Iris Wang, pharmaceutical analyst at Credit Suisse, said airing of the allegations by state-run CCTV shows that “the investigation will target those companies with blockbuster drugs, no matter whether they are multinationals or domestic”.

Sino Biopharm, which makes drugs to treat cardio cerebral diseases and hepatitis, was the second Chinese drug company this week to be the subject of media allegations. Its shares fell as much as 25 per cent in Hong Kong before trading was suspended.

Industry insiders say some foreign and domestic drug companies have seen a sharp drop in sales in the two months since the announcement of the GSK probe. They cautioned that firm figures would not be available until the end of the third quarter, but said anecdotal indications were that sales at some companies have fallen more than 40 per cent in that period compared with the same two months last year.

Additional reporting by Zhang Yan in Shanghai

中国官方首次将针对医药业腐败行为的调查范围拓展至国内药企。官方电视台节目称，一家中国制药企业用出境旅游来贿赂医生。

正大天晴药业(Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group)昨日表示，已成立调查组，对中国中央电视台(CCTV)一则报道中的指控进行调查。该报道称，江苏省的一些销售团队为吸引医生出席时长一小时的药品介绍会，而安排这些医生免费前往泰国和台湾旅游。在香港上市的中国生物制药(Sino Biopharmaceutical)持有正大天晴60%的股份。

这是中国官方媒体首次点名指控一家本土企业涉嫌从事医药腐败行为。

北京方面曾在7月份表示，正在调查总部位于英国的葛兰素史克(GlaxoSmithKline)涉嫌违法支付医生旅行费用的行为。自那以来，又有数家外资药企被指向医生支付非法激励，以鼓励这些医生在开处方时开他们的药品。

外国和本土分析师、医生、律师以及医药行业业内人士表示，相比外资企业，激励性支付的行为在本土企业中更加常见，因为外资企业受到海外反贿赂法律——如美国的《反海外腐败法》(Foreign Corrupt Practices Act)——的严格管控。

中国欧盟商会(EU Chamber of Commerce in China)抱怨称，中国主管部门不公平地把矛头指向外资医药企业。“我觉得有点不公平的是，对（最佳实践）态度最认真的外资企业，受到最多的调查和最多的歧视，”该商会医药工作组负责人布鲁诺?根斯布格尔(Bruno Gensburger)上周表示。

瑞信(Credit Suisse)医药业分析师Iris Wang表示，官方的中央电视台节目提出指控，这说明“调查将针对那些有畅销药的企业，无论它们是跨国公司还是本土企业”。

生产心脑血管疾病和肝炎药物的中国生物制药，是本周第二家遭媒体指控的中国药企。该公司股票在香港暴跌25%之后停盘。

业内人士称，葛兰素史克受调查的新闻发布后，两个月来一些外资和本土药企的销售大幅下滑。他们告诫称，确凿的数据要到第三季度结束后才能得到，但他们透露，非正式的迹象显示，这两个月某些公司的销售同比下滑逾40%。

张嫣(Zhang Yan)上海补充报道

译者/何黎