China News Service, August 9. According to the news on the WeChat public account of the "National Medical Insurance Administration" on the 9th, recently, the National Medical Insurance Administration, together with relevant departments, will guide the relevant provinces to investigate Guangzhou Baiyunshan Tianxin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Baiyunshan according to relevant clues. Three companies, including Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical General Factory of Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Baiyunshan Jingxiutang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., conducted special investigations by inflating drug prices and extracting funds.
According to investigations, from 2017 to May 2021, in order to circumvent the "two-invoice system" policy and supervision, three drug manufacturers including Tianxin Pharmaceuticals colluded with more than 50 downstream drug agents, and colluded with more than 50 downstream drug agents to collude with 87 kinds of drugs including cefathiamidine for injection. Drugs are cashed out by purchasing APIs at inflated prices and transferring funds to downstream drug agents.
The amount involved is huge, and some of the funds are used to bribe medical staff or specific related persons to carry out illegal promotion of drugs.
The main method of cashing out is that drug manufacturers and drug agents sign a cooperation agreement to add designated "distributors" in the procurement of APIs, and the "dealers" buy APIs at normal prices, increasing the price several times to ten times. It is sold to pharmaceutical manufacturers several times.
In the name of "rising prices of raw materials and high production costs", pharmaceutical manufacturers have further transmitted the falsely high prices of raw materials to factory and bidding prices.
The “dealers” of APIs are actually controlled by the pharmaceutical agents, and they cash out the income from the price difference obtained by buying low and selling APIs high, and transfer them to the pharmaceutical agents for them to implement pharmaceutical commercial bribery.
Taking cefathiamidine for injection as an example, Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical (preparation factory) and Baiyunshan chemical pharmaceutical factory (raw material factory) belong to the same group, but the cefathiamidine raw material required by the preparation factory is not directly purchased from the raw material factory of the group. Instead, an additional cash-out process is set up, and the “distributors” of APIs controlled by agents change hands, buy low and sell high to preparation factories and cash out.
The preparation factory used the high cost of raw materials to cover the artificially high price of cefathiamidine for injection, which made the production and circulation of the drug ostensibly comply with the "two-invoice system" and other policies and regulations, evading supervision.
At present, Tianxin Pharmaceutical and other 3 companies have rectified the prices of 87 kinds of drugs including cefathiamidine for injection involved nationwide as required, excluding the falsely high part of the current price used for bribery, with an average reduction of more than 50%, and some The product specification was discontinued.
Guangdong Province ordered three companies including Tianxin Pharmaceutical and other related companies to comprehensively rectify their marketing models and stop related illegal operations.
In addition, the relevant departments are investigating and punishing those suspected of violating discipline, law and crime.
The National Medical Insurance Bureau will continue to guide the provinces with relevant departments to do a good job in the evaluation of drug prices and recruitment credit based on the implementation of corporate rectification and the facts of violations identified by relevant departments, and cooperate with relevant departments to continue to correct unhealthy practices in the field of pharmaceutical purchases and sales.
The majority of pharmaceutical production and operation enterprises should take this as a warning, take the initiative to regulate their own business operations, abide by the statutory pricing principles of fairness and reasonableness, honesty and credit, and consistent quality and price, and work together to create a clean market environment and industry ecology.
(Zhongxin Finance)
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