China pledges more efforts to fight healthcare bribery

Chinese health authorities will continue working with judicial agencies to fight bribery and graft in the healthcare sector, a spokesman said Friday. The National Health and Family Planning Commission will step up its efforts to curb commercial bribery in the pharmaceutical industry and health service sector, commission spokesman Deng Haihua said at a press conference. Parties that give and receive bribes will be investigated and punished, Deng said. The commission also plans to blacklist pharmaceutical companies and individuals involved in bribery, he said. British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been under investigation for suspected bribery and tax-related offenses by Chinese authorities since early July. Other salespeople and doctors are also being investigated for their alleged involvement. Deng said health authorities are also working to stop corruption at its source by reforming public hospitals. Authorities are trying to stop public hospitals and their doctors from profiting by overprescribing medicines by raising salaries so that medical workers can have decent and sustainable legal incomes, he said. Efforts will be made to build an open and transparent public bidding platform for medicine and medical equipment, he said.