The GlaxoSmithKline incident is alleged to have been forced by the leaders to reduce the price of pharmaceutical companies

"Judging from the current media reports, the GSK incident may only be the cause, and the real purpose of relevant departments is to force drug companies to reduce prices." Recently, an analyst told the daily economic news Although the investigation of GSK by the public security department is not over yet, with the relevant details gradually disclosed, the roadmap of a foreign enterprise promoting drugs through illegal means in China is gradually clear Recently, it has been reported that GSK headquarters is sending senior internal auditors and lawyers to Shanghai to intensify internal investigation on executives accused of bribery Coincidentally, on July 17, Zhu Dezheng, deputy director of the medicine department of the price department of the national development and Reform Commission, revealed at the press conference of the top 100 pharmaceutical companies in 2013 that it was necessary to reform the drug pricing method, reform the independent pricing policy, gradually narrow the price gap between the original research and the imitation, and explore the global price linkage for some imported patented drugs In the view of the insiders, the reform of drug pricing has been coming The latest report shows that GSK is sending senior internal auditors and lawyers to Shanghai to strengthen internal investigation The company employs Ernst & young, an accounting firm, to independently evaluate its rules and regulations in China In addition, GSK confirmed that Steve nechelput, chief financial officer of the company's China division, had been restricted from leaving the country since the end of June At present, nechelput is continuing to work and is free to operate in China without being detained or interrogated Ma Kerui, President of GSK China, left Shanghai in early July and will assist in the investigation in London "We knew at the end of June that Steve nechelput's exit was restricted, but his travel in China was not restricted." "What we need to emphasize is that he is not among the people who have been put on file for investigation or taken compulsory measures," GSK China said in an interview with the daily economic news He is still the CFO of GSK China " Police have so far detained four Chinese executives of GSK, and have hinted that they are investigating the activities of other pharmaceutical companies Recently, it was reported on Weibo that the Shanghai Office of youshibi, Abbott, Roche, Novartis and other corporate offices were visited by relevant departments   Youshibi declined to comment; Roche said the company had not received the government's notice on its anti-corruption investigation; Novartis said in its statement that Chinese government departments had not contacted the company about anti-corruption, Novartis had not received the relevant investigation, while the Wuhan Office said by the outside world had not been investigated by any government departments in fact; Abbott said The matter was denied Anti corruption or forcing drug companies to reduce prices? In terms of the details disclosed by the Ministry of public security, the senior executives involved in GSK paid bribes to some government officials, a few pharmaceutical industry associations and foundations, hospitals, doctors, etc in the form of direct bribes or sponsorship projects through channels such as travel agencies, so as to promote drug sales Since 2007, GSK has transferred up to 3 billion yuan to more than 700 travel agencies and consulting companies In fact, in many years of market operation, the above-mentioned system has been used very mature, and this part of the cost will be included in the formulation of drug price, so the current drug price is also known as "bribe price" According to GSK executives under investigation, the promotion and kickback costs account for 20% - 30% of the total drug price In the view of many insiders, the occurrence of GSK bribery can not be separated from China's special national conditions of "supporting medicine with medicine" At the level of laws and regulations, commercial bribery is "zero tolerance", while at the practical level, some enterprises think that without bribery, they cannot obtain the support of the government, hospitals and doctors, so they cannot compete for the market The aforementioned analysts also said that the incident may trigger the investigation of pharmaceutical companies by relevant national departments, which may be a signal of the state's efforts to rectify the false high drug prices, and the state may take the GSK "bribery gate" incident as a signal of forcing pharmaceutical companies to reduce prices "This time, the relevant departments may take GSK as a grab and a sample If there is no rabbit, there will be no hawk This is just like treating milk powder enterprises of foreign enterprises, the purpose is to force these enterprises to reduce prices." "According to the current data, GSK's cost of bribery accounts for 30% of the cost of drugs, so theoretically, there is at least 30% room for drug price reduction," the person told the daily economic news In addition, the person said, in this round of game, there may be companies that take the lead in price reduction, and it would not be surprising if the pharmaceutical company is GSK In fact, since 2005, the national development and Reform Commission has reduced the price of foreign drugs for many times, but it has been unable to touch the root of the high price of foreign drugs Take the ceftriaxone injection (1g) produced by Roche company as an example The price of the product was originally 93.8 yuan in China In 2010, the national development and Reform Commission asked the company to reduce the price of the product Now the price is 65.7 yuan However, the price of domestic generic drugs of the same variety has been as low as 1 yuan in the bidding of some provinces and cities in China Similar cases are numerous The reporter learned that the government has also played a game with enterprises The state has attracted some foreign investors to reduce the price of drugs by entering the medical insurance or including basic drugs and other preferential conditions, but it has not achieved significant results Coincidentally, on the 17th of this month, Zhu Dezheng revealed at the press conference of the top 100 pharmaceutical companies in 2013 that it is necessary to reform drug pricing methods and explore global price linkage for some imported patented drugs At the meeting, Zhu Dezheng put forward three preliminary thoughts on reform First, reform the pricing method, including improving the cost-based pricing method and gradually introducing the drug economic evaluation method; for some drugs (imported patented drugs), reference can be made to the international market, especially the market price equivalent to the level of China's economic development; price protection can be given to patented drugs to keep the price relatively stable; explore the pilot reform of pricing method   Second, we should reform the independent pricing policy to gradually narrow the price gap between the original research and imitation; third, we should reform the price increase policy in the circulation link, including strengthening the investigation and monitoring of drug ex factory price; explore effective methods to control the actual price increase rate in the circulation link; reform the price increase policy in the hospital drug sales, gradually reduce the price increase by 15%, and explore trial Line differential markup policy, etc At the beginning of this month, the national development and Reform Commission launched a cost investigation on dozens of pharmaceutical enterprises, including GSK, saying that this is to understand and master the cost, price and relevant information in the process of drug production and circulation, and timely formulate and adjust drug prices The survey covers the production, sales, cost and price of all drugs of relevant enterprises for three consecutive years from 2010 to 2012 "It may be a good time to carry out drug pricing reform On the one hand, the R & D capacity of domestic enterprises has gradually increased, and some domestic new drugs can compete with foreign varieties to some extent." The analysts said.