Recently, the Sichuan Provincial Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Bidding and Procurement Service Center issued an apology statement from 7 pharmaceutical companies, and a number of pharmaceutical sales personnel were fired.

In fact, this is the second time this year that a provincial drug procurement platform has issued an apology statement from a pharmaceutical company. The commercial bribery of pharmaceutical companies cannot only be "dismissed" by medical representatives, but also the companies involved must bear the consequences. Enterprises that have untrustworthy behaviors in terms of price procurement credit rating will be affected in terms of product listing and distribution qualifications.

A number of people in the compliance industry said that since the pharmaceutical anti-corruption storm in 2023, although there is a phased rhythm in the disclosure of anti-corruption cases, the country's determination to fight corruption in the pharmaceutical field has never relaxed. Liu Huaying, a partner at Grandway Law Firm in Shanghai, said that anti-bribery is a conscious stance and posture that enterprises should have, and refusing to accept bribes is to reject the risks brought about by corruption.

A number of pharmaceutical companies have apologized for alleged commercial bribery

On February 14, the website of the Sichuan Provincial Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Bidding and Procurement Service Center published an apology statement from a number of pharmaceutical companies.

Seven companies, including Sichuan Hecheng Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Sichuan Minsheng Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Sichuan Weilian Ruida Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Sichuan Mingsheng Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd., Ziyang Kefa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ziyang Kefa"), Sichuan Xintianyi Technology Co., Ltd. and Guangyao Sichuan Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guangyao Sichuan"), apologized for commercial bribery and other issues in the sales process.

The above-mentioned pharmaceutical companies' apology statements involve a time span dating back to 2023 at the earliest, and the latest payment will be made in 2025. Ziyang Kefa also mentioned a criminal judgment in the apology statement, and the company said that it had terminated the relevant untrustworthy behavior as soon as possible, actively cooperated with the judicial department in the investigation of the case, accepted punishment and took the initiative to hand over illegal gains. The other six pharmaceutical companies stated in a statement that they had dismissed or terminated the labor contracts of the salespeople and business personnel involved.

According to incomplete statistics, this is the second time this year that a pharmaceutical company has issued an apology on the procurement platform.

In January 2025, the Yunnan Provincial Drug Centralized Procurement Platform posted an apology statement from Taizhou Tianhua Medical Device Co., Ltd. and Jiangsu Renfu Medical Device Co., Ltd., both of which were involved in commercial bribery in the sales of consumables in Wenshan Prefecture People's Hospital, spanning from 2013 to 2021. On December 23, 2024, the Yunnan Provincial Drug Centralized Procurement Platform issued the "Announcement on Receiving the Notice of Credit Proposed Rating of Dishonest Enterprises (13)", and 9 medical device companies were notified for commercial bribery.

In the above-mentioned apology statement of the Sichuan procurement platform, a listed company was involved. According to the information of the enterprise check, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Sichuan is 100% controlled by Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., which is Baiyunshan (600332. SH) holds 90.92% of the company.

More than a year ago, another listed company, Weigao Orthopedics (688161. SH) has also publicly apologized for commercial bribery.

In November 2023, the Hubei Provincial Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Centralized Procurement Service Platform announced a notification letter on the rating results of pharmaceutical prices and untrustworthy behaviors in procurement, the document stated that the credit evaluation of enterprises related to pharmaceutical commercial bribery cases in the second quarter of 2023 has been completed, and the two companies are requested to receive a notification letter on the rating results of pharmaceutical prices and untrustworthy behaviors in procurement, which involves Shanghai Kailitai Medical Technology Co., Ltd. and Weigao Orthopedics. Subsequently, in December, Shandong Weigao Orthopedics issued an apology statement on the above-mentioned Hubei procurement platform.

There are still challenges in the construction of anti-bribery in the pharmaceutical field

In the above-mentioned apology statement of the Sichuan pharmaceutical company, the company focused on the results of the termination of the contract by the medical representative. However, the lawyer said that under the "unit crime" clause of the Criminal Law, if the management of the relevant enterprise acquiesces or condones such acts, the enterprise and the relevant person in charge may bear criminal liability.

Xu Chen, a salaried partner of Beijing Guofeng (Shanghai) Law Firm, said that in terms of legal liability, if the company has sufficient evidence to prove that the company has nothing to do with the personal bribery of the sales staff, the company will not bear the legal responsibility for criminal offenses or administrative penalties, but if the employee's bribery actually causes the company to obtain improper benefits, it may still be required to return the unjust enrichment. If the employee's bribery behavior reflects the company's will and the improper benefits obtained ultimately belong to the company, the company may constitute the subject of the unit's crime, and the directly responsible supervisor and other directly responsible personnel may also become the responsible entity and bear criminal liability, and because the commercial bribery is an act of unfair competition, even if it does not constitute a criminal offense, it may be confiscated by the administrative authority for violating the provisions of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law depending on the severity of the circumstances. Administrative penalties for fines or revocation of business licenses.

"In addition, if the legitimate rights and interests of other business operators are harmed by acts of unfair competition, they may file a lawsuit with the people's court, and the bribe giver may bear the corresponding civil liability for compensation accordingly." Lawyer Xu Chen added that in the current handling of bribery cases, in addition to the collection of bribes, the recovery and correction of improper benefits are the focus of the judicial organs' work.

In accordance with the provisions of the Measures for the Administration of Medical Representatives (Draft for Comments), measures such as publicity of illegal acts, increasing the frequency of supervision, restricting participation in relevant drug procurement activities, and restricting the signing of designated medical insurance service agreements shall be taken for drug marketing authorization holders, medical and health institutions and other units that have committed illegal and criminal acts such as commercial bribery.

In September 2024, the National Health Insurance Administration announced the situation of pharmaceutical companies rated as "particularly serious" and "serious" as of June 30, 2024, involving a total of 28 enterprises.

The National Health Insurance Administration pointed out that the credit rating of price procurement is mainly determined based on the severity of the amount of bribes, unfair price behavior, and disruption of the order of centralized procurement. For example, a single bribe of more than 10,000 yuan is considered "average", a single bribe of more than 100,000 yuan is considered "moderate", a single bribe of more than 300,000 yuan is considered "serious", and a single bribe of more than 2 million yuan is "particularly serious". Based on the credit rating of the pharmaceutical enterprise, measures such as reminding and admonishing the enterprise, reminding the risk, disclosing information on untrustworthiness, and even restricting or suspending the enterprise's involvement in the case or all drugs and medical consumables are on the network, bidding or distribution qualifications. For example, for "serious" rated enterprises, measures such as canceling the qualifications of the products involved in the case are to be disposed of and distributed; For "particularly serious" rated enterprises, measures such as canceling all their products are listed on the network and disqualified for distribution.

Lawyer Xu Chen said that the pharmaceutical industry is a field of "concentration of power, capital intensity, and resource enrichment", and there are many special ways with industry characteristics in the marketing model, and because of the fierce competition in the industry, the business philosophy of "performance first" is deep-rooted, so commercial bribery is frequent.

On January 14 this year, the official website of the State Administration for Market Regulation officially issued the "Compliance Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Enterprises to Prevent Commercial Bribery Risks" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines"), which refers to commercial bribery in the pharmaceutical field. The Guidelines also specifically list the risks of commercial bribery in nine scenarios, including academic visits and exchanges, reception, consulting services, outsourcing services, discounts, discounts and commissions, donations, sponsorships, funding, free delivery of medical equipment, clinical research, and retail terminal sales.

"I believe that enterprises need to understand the positive significance of the construction of an anti-bribery management system from the source, and tailor an anti-bribery management system that meets the actual situation of the enterprise according to the scale of the enterprise and key compliance risk areas." Lawyer Xu Chen further said that the Guidelines also clearly regard the establishment and implementation of the anti-commercial bribery risk compliance management system as the content of the enterprise's active reporting and cooperation with supervision, and then use it as the basis for mitigating, mitigating or even not imposing administrative penalties.

A number of people in the compliance industry said that since the pharmaceutical anti-corruption storm in 2023, although there is a phased rhythm in the disclosure of anti-corruption cases, the country's determination to fight corruption in the pharmaceutical field has never relaxed. On February 6, the official website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection released an article "Monograph of the Times丨 Scientifically Grasp the Current Situation and Tasks of the Anti-corruption Struggle", the article pointed out that taking the pharmaceutical field as an example, it is necessary to deepen and promote the reform of the pharmaceutical system, reconstruct the overall pharmaceutical management system, and effectively promote the coordinated development and governance of medical treatment, medical insurance and medicine through reform, so as to eliminate the soil for the breeding and spread of pharmaceutical corruption from the root.