Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical, the number one in China's pharmaceutical industry, was fined 764 million heavily for monopoly

Reporter | Yuan Yiming

Edit | Xie Xin

The State Administration for Market Regulation imposed administrative penalties on Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical Group Co.
, Ltd.
(hereinafter referred to as "Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical") for implementing a monopoly agreement on April 15, with a total fine of 764 million yuan
.

This is also the latest monopoly penalty imposed by the State Administration of Market Supervision on the pharmaceutical industry.
Tianyao shares were also fined 44.
02 million yuan for monopoly this month
.

However, compared with Tianyao, Yangtze River Pharmaceutical's volume and industry status are much larger in the pharmaceutical industry.
In fact, Yangtze River Pharmaceutical has never been listed, but it is comparable to a "Big Mac" in China.
The existence of >
.

According to monopoly agreements penalty decision, since the way from 2015 to 2019, the Yangtze River Pharmaceutical and trading counterpart by signing a cooperation agreement, the price adjustment issued a letter, verbal notification to reach a fixed and limited price
.

On December 22, 2020, after the "Administrative Punishment Notice" was delivered for the first time, Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical filed an application for a hearing
.

However, the State Administration of Market Supervision believes that Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical’s claims are “not valid” because: there is evidence that Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical has set various penalties for not implementing fixed and limited price policies, such as deductions, for each transaction partner in all aspects of drug sales.
bonuses, stop reimbursements, stock and so on
.

The above two points dismissed all statements made by Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical
.

The State Administration for Market Regulation also revealed that the State Administration for Market Regulation had organized members of the Expert Advisory Group of the State Council’s Anti-Monopoly Committee to jointly convene an expert discussion meeting on this case
.

The administrative penalty document also disclosed in the penalty reason: Yangtze River Pharmaceutical's illegal activities lasted for a long time and covered a wider area; it did not cooperate in the early stage of the investigation and delayed the inspection progress, but actively cooperated with the investigation in the later stage of the investigation to promote the progress of the investigation
.

Therefore, the State Administration of Market Supervision finally decided: to fine Yangzijiang Pharmaceutical in accordance with 3% of its 2018 sales
.

It is worth mentioning that Yangtze River Pharmaceutical also sued the court for suspected monopoly of APIs by four companies including Guangzhou Hairui Pharmaceutical, Hefei Medical Industry and Pharmaceutical, Hefei Enruit Pharmaceutical, and Nanjing Haichen Pharmaceutical
.

And a year later, Yangtze River Pharmaceutical lost more than ten times the money it had earned by suing others for its monopoly because of its own monopoly
.