Chinanews Client Beijing, April 14 (Reporter Zhang Ni) False invoices, inflated academic activity fees, and inflated advertising fees... Recently, the Ministry of Finance announced the results of administrative penalties imposed on 19 pharmaceutical companies. Including Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, Buchang Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi and other well-known pharmaceutical companies at home and abroad.

  Why have long been criticized problems such as medical rebates and sales with money continue to be banned?

Can the gray interest chain be completely cut off?

Image source: Screenshot of the official website of the Ministry of Finance

19 pharmaceutical companies were punished by the Ministry of Finance, including leading domestic companies with a market value of 100 billion

  According to an announcement issued by the Ministry of Finance on the 12th, in 2019, the Ministry of Finance, in conjunction with the National Medical Insurance Administration, will conduct accounting information quality inspections on 77 pharmaceutical companies.

  After investigation, some pharmaceutical companies have problems such as using false invoices and bills to arbitrage funds for external use, fictitious business matters or using pharmaceutical promotion companies to arbitrage funds, and irregular accounting books.

  According to Article 42 of the "Accounting Law of the People's Republic of China", the Ministry of Finance imposed administrative penalties on 19 pharmaceutical companies inspected by relevant regulatory bureaus of the Ministry of Finance.

  Among them, 12 companies were fined 50,000 yuan and 7 companies were fined 30,000 yuan.

  It is worth noting that among the 19 companies that have been punished this time, many well-known companies and listed companies are involved, including Hengrui Medicine, a leading pharmaceutical company with a market value of more than 470 billion yuan.

  In addition, some multinational pharmaceutical companies are also on the list this time. The subsidiaries of France's Sanofi, Germany's Merck, and Eli Lilly's subsidiaries have all been fined.

  Liu Feng, the second-level inspector of the Supervision and Evaluation Bureau of the Ministry of Finance, said that due to the impact of the epidemic, the announcement of the results of administrative penalties has been postponed from last year to this year.

  In addition to the administrative penalties announced this time, the local finance department (bureau) has also imposed administrative punishments on other pharmaceutical companies that are responsible for inspections.

Other violations of laws and regulations found in the inspection shall be transferred to the competent authority for handling.

Data map: Photo by Yu Danfei, automatic medicine dispenser

Inflated travel expenses, academic activity expenses... Enterprises actually have these "tricks"!

  For a long time, high drug prices have always been a chronic disease in the field of people's medical treatment.

  One of the main reasons for the falsely high prices of medicines is the long-term existence of gold sales within the industry, that is, a sales promotion method adopted by pharmaceutical manufacturers to stimulate doctors to use sales products, and use illegal cash benefits as their business Return.

  For example, it was previously reported by the media that a doctor from Shangshui County People’s Hospital in Henan Province took advantage of his position to prescribe 35,962 boxes of "Buchang" Naoxintong Capsules in 3 years, and illegally accepted drugs from sales clerk of Shaanxi Buchang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. The rebate is RMB 125,000.

  A review of the penalties announced this time reveals that among the 19 companies, the most common forms of violations are inflated travel expenses, academic activity expenses, business promotion expenses, advertising expenses, and so on.

  For example, Jiangsu Wanbang Pharmaceutical Marketing Co., Ltd. paid the sales promotion expenses of individual agents in 2018. Part of the invoice attached to the voucher was issued by a third-party company with no substantial business dealings with the company, involving an amount of 140 million yuan.

  Shandong Buchang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. paid funds to the pharmaceutical promotion company in the name of consulting fees and market promotion fees, which were then transferred to the company’s agents by the pharmaceutical promotion company, involving an amount of 51,223,900 yuan.

  Changbaishan Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. inflated staff salaries by 7.222,500 yuan in 2018, inflated travel expenses by 21,624,300 yuan by over-reporting the number of days the sales staff were on business trips, and inflated labor dispatch costs by 508.20 by over-reporting the workload of labor dispatchers. Ten thousand yuan.

  “The inspection focused on the cost structure of pharmaceutical products, and found out the reasons for the falsely high drug prices, which deterred pharmaceutical companies from paying for sales, driving up drug prices and other violations, and ensuring the smooth progress of major reforms such as centralized drug purchases." Said in the announcement.

Data map

Can the gray chain of interests be completely cut off when the country strikes a combination punch?

  Seeing a doctor is an important livelihood issue related to ordinary people.

  In recent years, in order to cut off the gray interest chain in the medical field, relevant state departments have successively introduced a series of policy measures. One of the most direct and powerful measures is to carry out the centralized procurement of national medicines.

  Since the end of 2018, 11 cities began to pilot the state to organize centralized drug procurement, and the state has organized and implemented four batches of national centralized drug procurement.

  According to official data, as of 2020, the actual purchase volume has reached 2.4 times the agreed purchase volume, and the overall cost savings have exceeded 100 billion yuan.

  Over the years, the falsely high drug prices have been squeezed out a lot of "moisture", and it has also promoted the healthier development of pharmaceutical companies.

  In terms of combating commercial bribery, in September 2020, the National Medical Insurance Bureau published the "Guiding Opinions on Establishing a Pharmaceutical Price and Recruitment Credit Evaluation System", giving rebates or other illegitimate benefits, tax-related violations, and other 7 categories in the purchase and sale of medicines. Acts are listed as untrustworthy matters.

  In December of the same year, the "Administrative Measures for the Recordation of Medical Representatives (Trial)" was formally implemented, which clearly stated that medical representatives should not undertake the task of drug sales, and implement sales activities such as collection and processing of purchase and sale bills.

  This time, the accounting information quality inspection of pharmaceutical companies involved by the Ministry of Finance is a more three-dimensional supervision in order to block possible "running and dripping" problems within the company.

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