| Commercial bribery is an abnormal social phenomenon along with the economy development.It violates the requirement of fair competition in market economy,destroys a normal transaction order and reasonable arrangement of resources,while impedes the economy from growing healthily.Commercial bribery is a worldwide problem that has caused varying degrees of damage to national economies.As scholars Sandoldz and Koetzle say: Commercial bribery is like a ghost,wandering over the business world.Commercial bribery is not only a worldwide public hazard,but also a serious problem in China.Due to the great harm to China's economy and social environment,it must be controlled.In the numerous commercial bribery cases,bribery involving public power is the most serious type,as it is conducted by bribing government officials and other influential public officials in order to obtain improper competitive advantages.The Public officials who accept bribes use the rights conferred by their positions to achieve the personal purpose of private possession by exchanging public interests.As public officials of the medical and health system,healthcare professionals(“HCP”)have also fallen into the wave of commercial bribery,which has caused tremendous impact on China's social security system.As the second largest pharmaceutical market,China has made a great progress in improving healthcare system and standardizing the industry practice.Chinese government has made “Health China 2030 Plan” as part of the country strategy,confirming the importance of healthcare and disease prevention for China' development.This fast-growing industry,however,becomes a breeding ground for commercial bribery.The cost for many drugs is not high,but in the sales promotion section,the medical institutions,HCPs and even the warehouse management personnel responsible for purchasing medicines need to take kickbacks at various levels,which leads to high prices to retain the rebate space.The price of medicines has been raised unreasonably,and patients have become the ultimate payers.The widespread erosion of commercial bribery in the pharmaceutical field has ruined the professional ethics of HCPs,damaged patients' health,and increased a family's economic burden.Therefore,commercial bribery in the pharmaceutical filed has the widest and worst impact.There are many forms of commercial bribery in the pharmaceutical filed,and the means are diversified.Besides the routine form of financial kickbacks,more and more forms of non-financial kickbacks are known.Commercial bribery has a large number of names,no accounts to follow or false accounts,and it has great concealment.In addition,commercial bribery conceals in legitimate relationships,making the boundary between commercial bribery and legitimate transactions blurred,which causes difficulties to the investigation.Commercial bribery in the pharmaceutical filed is caused by many factors,such as HCPs' low income,lack of competitive advantages,Chinese traditional culture,and a low legal awareness of medical representatives.In the past years,especially after the British drug giant Glaxo Smith Kline broke out a scandal of a large-scale commercial bribery in China,Chinese government has published a series of regulations and taken specific actions to manage commercial bribery in the pharmaceutical industry.In December 2013,the Health Planning Committee issued three regulations to strengthen supervision of the pharmaceutical field.However,due to the late start of anti-bribery governance,there are still many improving areas.From the perspective of legislation,the main laws and regulations concerning commercial bribery in China are scattered among different levels of effectiveness,and has not formed a unified system.There are also many differences from the legislation of developed countries and international organizations.In law enforcement,the roles and responsibilities are not clear,and the scale of law enforcement is not uniform,making it hard to protect the justice and seriousness of the judiciary.According to the past experience,in the process of governing commercial bribery,legal construction must adapt to the iterative and development of commercial bribery,and make constant adjustments in order to respond in a timely and effective manner.For commercial bribery crimes that have already occurred,they should be severely punished according to law.For potential bribery behaviors,they should be prevented in advance to curb their development.Most of the developed countries have experienced the period of high commercial bribery.Therefore,they have set up a sound legal system,administrative regulations and effective responses.The most influential of these is the US Foreign Corrupt Practice Act,a US law that extends its reach overseas and prohibits bribery of government officials outside the United States.In addition,the UK's Anti-Bribery Act,which was enacted in 2011,identified many common personal and corporate actions as illegal and was recognized by the industry as “the most stringent anti-corruption law”.It is very important to summarize and learn from the successful experiences of these developed countries.Meanwhile,we also need to fully consider the status and practices in China,and gradually and steadily enhance the governance of commercial bribery.However,it's important to note that the objective of governing commercial bribery is not to eliminate it entirely,which is impossible.The purpose is to minimize the potential risks,and ensure a fair market competition.To sum up,commercial bribery greatly harms a country's economy and social environment,and it is caused by various factors including industry,society and political system.Commercial bribery in the field of pharmaceutical sales promotion has seriously eroded the HCPs,affecting their public images,and even seriously hindering the healthy development of China's medical and health industry.The governance of commercial bribery should be further improved and strengthened.This will be a long-time effort,and we must work together in many ways to effectively control the breeding of commercial bribery.The paper is composed of six sections.Besides introduction and conclusion,there are four sections.The first section is an overview of commercial bribery in the field of pharmaceutical sales promotion in China.Firstly,by introducing the definition of commercial bribery in relevant domestic and overseas laws and regulations,it is further extended to the definition of commercial bribery in the field of pharmaceutical sales promotion.Secondly,it analyzes the reasons for the formation of bribery in China's pharmaceutical industry.The purpose is to reveal the essence of commercial bribery through deep analysis of causes and lay the foundation for research solutions.The reasons for the formation of commercial bribery in the field of pharmaceutical sales promotion are very complicated,such as medical industry system,individual reasons,etc.This paper has carried out a profound analysis based on the actual situation of the industry.Then,the paper sets out the four most common commercial bribery behaviors in the field of pharmaceutical sales promotion.Kickback is the most common type while there are entertainment,sponsored academic conferences and many other types which are seemingly normal,but in fact for commercial bribery purposes.This paper further confirms through the punishment of two real cases that the regulatory authorities have paid attention to the nature of these new forms of commercial bribery.Finally,the paper summarizes the characteristics of commercial bribery in the field of pharmaceutical sales promotion.The second section is about the governance deficiencies.First of all,from the perspective of legislation,although the government has issued a series of laws and regulations to manage the commercial bribery in the field of pharmaceutical sales promotion,the existing anti-commercial bribery legal system is not unified and coordinated.In addition,as a State party to the United Nations Convention against Corruption,there are differences between the existing anti-commercial bribery-related legislation and the requirements of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.Secondly,this paper analyzes the status and deficiencies from the law enforcement level.Such as,there are several enforcement parties,but the intensity is different.On the other hand,law enforcement's awareness of commercial bribery in the field of pharmaceutical sales promotion is still very limited,and the deficiencies need to be constantly revised and improved.Finally,the paper elaborates the status and deficiencies from the perspective of supervision from social supervision,industry association supervision and public supervision.The third section is about international experience in managing commercial bribery.The author selects three regulations which have the greatest impact in the world.The first is the <United Nations Convention against Corruption>.As the first legally binding international convention against corruption,the United Nations has a far-reaching impact on countries around the world.As a State party to the Convention,China should fully understand and adhere to it.Secondly,the US Foreign Corrupt Practice Act has greatly promoted the international operation for American companies.It has great value for Chinese enterprises to “go out of the country”.The final one is the <British Anti-Bribery Act>,which is known as the “most severe anti-corruption law” in the world.It demonstrates the greatest attention that a developed country pays to anti-bribery governance.After summarizing each legislative situation,the author extracts advanced legislative concepts and governance experiences for China to adopt.The fourth section is recommendations for commercial bribery governance in China's pharmaceutical industry.It is recommended to establish an "Anti-Commercial Bribery Law",and improve the identification of non-financial bribery methods,and regulations on overseas bribery,etc.Secondly,it is recommended to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each enforcement party and strengthen the cooperation among them.Thirdly,strengthen the supervision mechanism,such has reporting,autonomy of industry associations,etc.Finally,it is recommended to enhance the compliance framework for each company to reduce the commercial bribery in the pharmaceutical industry from the source. |
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