AstraZeneca confirmed that the company's medical representatives were taken away by the police for investigation

July 23, 2013 source: GSK China business bribery case is still on the rise, and more multinational pharmaceutical companies are involved Yesterday, it was reported that police visited GSK's rival, AstraZeneca, a British pharmaceutical giant, in its Shanghai office, becoming the latest foreign drug company under investigation in China Yesterday, AstraZeneca confirmed to first financial daily that police did visit its Shanghai Office on Friday (19) and took away a medical representative However, "the medical representative was taken away by the police for personal reasons, and the company was not investigated We haven't got any information from the police about this employee yet, so we can't say how we will deal with this employee " AstraZeneca told reporters At the end of last week, after GSK, Belgium based UCB confirmed the news of the visit On the 18th, youshibi said it would not comment on "the Shanghai office was visited by the industry and Commerce Department", but the next day it admitted that it did accept the Compliance Investigation of the State Administration of industry and commerce "The State Administration for Industry and Commerce of China has already visited us," said yoshibi They launched an investigation into several pharmaceutical companies in China, including Chinese companies and foreign companies like us As part of the investigation, our office in Shanghai has been visited by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce in the past 48 hours " At the same time, there is no sign that the GSK incident has subsided According to the website of the Ministry of public security yesterday, the head of relevant departments of the Ministry of public security has recently met with senior representatives of GSK in Beijing, including Abbas Hussain, President of GSK in charge of international affairs GSK issued a statement after the meeting, saying that "it plans to reduce the operating cost in the drug price by adjusting the operation mode, so that more Chinese patients can obtain high-quality GlaxoSmithKline drugs" With the significant increase of Chinese government's investment in the primary medical market - after the implementation of the new medical reform policy in 2009, 1134.2 billion yuan will be invested in the medical reform within three years, nearly half of which will be invested in the primary medical market, while the demand of the primary medical market continues to release, multinational pharmaceutical companies began to adjust their strategies, hoping to sink channels to capture the primary market Last year, AstraZeneca Asia Pacific headquarters was established in Shanghai Mark, vice president of AstraZeneca Asia Pacific region and President of AstraZeneca China region "We need to expand the market from big city hospitals to community medical centers and some grassroots hospitals," Malone said However, in addition to the discomfort of new promotion methods caused by different market characteristics, the price problem is directly put on the table: if the price is reduced to adapt to the purchasing power of the grass-roots market, how to ensure profits and growth? The problem of patent expiration is eroding the profits of multinational pharmaceutical companies which mainly focus on the original research drugs Analysis shows that AstraZeneca is expected to have 7 drug patents expired by 2014 Once generic drugs enter the market in full, it may squeeze 62% of AstraZeneca's sales revenue For GSK, the growth rate of China is far higher than other regions In the first quarter of 2013, the global sales of prescription drugs and vaccines fell by 2%, of which the U.S market fell by 6% and the European market fell by 3%, while the emerging markets represented by China and the Asia Pacific region grew by an average of 8% Data shows that GSK's Chinese prescription drug business has exceeded the industry's average growth rate of 25% for three consecutive years At present, GSK China is experiencing a huge personnel shock, and the company is facing great challenges from the reconstruction of management to the recovery of business and strategic adjustment in China It is unclear when GSK's business in China will resume and reach its previous growth rate Last year, Li Bozhong, President of GSK China, publicly told the media that the price cut is not without impact on GSK's business, but a relatively large risk the company faces Now, GSK has publicly stated that it plans to reduce the price, which is undoubtedly a huge challenge to the company's performance in China.