High price black curtain of foreign brand medical equipment: 1.6 million yuan rebate of Dean

Another "monopoly door" in the medical field Xinhua Shanghai, Aug 5 (Xinhua viewpoint reporter Zhou Lin, Huang Anqi, Liu Yuanxu) recently, the Shanghai Higher People's court made a final judgment on the first case of vertical monopoly in China Johnson & Johnson (Shanghai) medical equipment Co., Ltd and Johnson & Johnson (China) medical equipment Co., Ltd Limited the "minimum resale price" to form a "monopoly", and were awarded compensation to dealers 53 Ten thousand yuan After GlaxoSmithKline case opened the black curtain of false high drug price, Johnson & Johnson case caused people to question the monopoly high price of foreign brand medical devices From "supplier" to "operating table", how many times the price? Why is the huge difference? Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua perspective" reporters conducted an investigation Sales price of foreign brands "dominating the world" remains high From diagnosis and treatment equipment to cardiac stents, an industry recognized judgment in the medical device market is that the share of "domestic" and "foreign" products is 37 According to the statistics of China Chamber of Commerce for the import and export of medical and health products, in 2012, the total import of medical devices in China was 12.472 billion US dollars, an increase of 14.56% year on year But for many patients suffering from disease and heavy economic burden, they have to face such helplessness: install an artificial joint, heart stent, etc., doctors are willing to recommend "foreign brands", and the price is naturally much higher For an inspection, the color ultrasound instrument, nuclear magnetic inspection equipment, biochemical analyzer, etc used are basically "made in foreign countries", and the inspection fee is often hundreds of thousands "In Shanghai, at present, in the field of orthopaedic implants and cardiac implants, multinational companies occupy the majority of the products, and the price is about 50% higher than that of local enterprises." Yao Zhixiu, honorary director of the surgical implants Professional Committee of China Medical Device Industry Association, said In addition to some of the better performance of such "high price", whether and how much "water" there is has become a question in the heart of patients "A 75 year old friend had a traffic accident The hospital had to install an artificial joint of 70000 yuan, or transfer." An insider said he had to spend only 40000 yuan on the same type of joint he used after transferring to another hospital "It's like if you want to buy a car, you only need Volvo, but the other side doesn't want you to buy Ferrari." Yao Zhixiu also told reporters about the experience of a friend: an old lady in Hong Kong, who had an operation in a well-known hospital in the mainland, installed an artificial joint Although the operation cost was cheap, the material cost of the operation after returning to Hong Kong was refused to be reimbursed, for the reason that it was more than twice the price in Hong Kong Limit low price "boost" high rebate "add fuel to the fire" Beijing ruibangyong and science and Trade Co., Ltd are dealers of medical suture, stapler and other medical devices of Johnson & Johnson However, in the distribution contract in 2008, Johnson & Johnson agreed that Ruibang should not sell products at a price lower than the specified price When it was found that Ruibang was "in violation of the regulations and at a low price", Johnson & Johnson cancelled its distribution right in some hospitals, and finally stopped supply "This kind of behavior of restricting Reseller's resale price leads to the artificially high product price, and the manufacturer" pocketed "the high profit." Gong Jiong, a professor at the University of foreign economic relations and trade, said Monopoly, of course, is the result of the pursuit of high profits However, industry insiders revealed that some enterprises set high prices in order to digest the "black cost" behind commercial bribery A former general manager of a medical device joint venture said that the product has high pricing, hospitals, departments and medical personnel have also received high kickbacks, the enthusiasm of recommending products is great, and the sales volume can be guaranteed Yao Zhixiu, for example, said that the proportion of rebates is almost the same, but the unit price of imported products is high, and the rebates are naturally more generous Suppose that the price of an imported artificial joint is 30000 yuan, and the rebate may be 67000 yuan, while the price of a domestic artificial joint is 15000 yuan, and the rebate is only about 3000 yuan This phenomenon can be seen from the cases exposed in recent years: an American brand color blood flow imaging system is sold to the hospital at a price of 980000 yuan, and the rebate given to the president is 100000 yuan; a Korean made 3D multi-functional color Doppler ultrasound diagnostic instrument is sold to the hospital at a price of more than 1600000 yuan, and the "benefit fee" given to the president is as high as 3 yuan The market price of a joint venture heart fixator is 20000 yuan, and the doctor's rebate is 3800 yuan All kinds of "benefit fees" are ultimately paid by patients Strong "anti-monopoly" to eliminate "potential rules" For the upstream forced "limit low price", the downstream dealers are often only "helpless to accept" Hao Junbo, an anti-monopoly lawyer, said that the difficulty of investigating and dealing with this kind of monopoly case lies in that although downstream enterprises are also victims of this kind of monopoly agreement, they may not dare to "fight" under the pressure of upstream enterprises and can only passively accept the lowest resale price, but it is the patients who ultimately "buy" the high price "In the field of drugs and medical devices, if there is a monopoly, it is the patients who are ultimately injured." According to Hao Junbo, relevant departments should increase the penalties for anti-monopoly actions and increase the illegal costs of monopoly enterprises For example, in the above-mentioned cases, Johnson & Johnson was only awarded compensation of more than 500000 yuan This amount will certainly not be in the eyes of Johnson & Johnson, it is difficult to play an effective role in punishment In addition, there are regulatory "loopholes" in the purchase and pricing links, which have a large "operable space", leading to confusion in the field of medical devices, interest black chain clustering, and high prices "Some local medical equipment prices are reported by enterprises to the industry association and then to the price bureau for filing The industry association will not change the prices at will, which eventually leads to a great knowledge of who to use and how much money to set, and medical equipment has become a new rent-seeking direction." A medical device vendor said From April 2011 to may 2012, the Yunlong District Procuratorate of Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province investigated and dealt with 9 corruption cases involving 14 people in the field of medical device procurement, involving more than 4 million yuan The medical corruption showed a new trend from drugs to medical devices Relevant experts believe that relevant departments should improve the pricing and purchasing system and standards of medical devices, speed up the breaking of the pattern of "supporting doctors with drugs", strengthen supervision and supervision, eliminate the space for rent-seeking, curb unfair competition, and prevent the costs incurred in rent-seeking from being transferred to patients at a high price.