U.S. drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb said on Tuesday it had stopped “certain initiatives” in China, when asked by Reuters to comment on industry chatter it was curbing financial incentives for prescribing doctors.
Payments to healthcare professionals in China are under intense scrutiny after GlaxoSmithKline was slapped with a record $490 million fine for bribery in 2014.
Industry sources cited reports on Chinese social media that Bristol-Myers had announced a clampdown on the use of expenses and speaker fees for doctors.
Reuters could not immediately verify the reports but a company spokesman said in an emailed statement: “Bristol-Myers Squibb has voluntarily stopped certain initiatives in China as the company continues to review its activities and build upon its business model in China.”
Last October, Bristol-Myers agreed to pay $14 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange claims its joint venture in China made cash payments and provided other benefits to healthcare providers in China in exchange for prescription sales.
By Ben Hirschler; Editing by Martinne Geller
Source: Reuters
The companies will explore opportunities to apply Flagship’s innovative bioplatforms – an ecosystem that currently comprises 41 companies – to scientific challenges in disease areas within cardiometabolic and rare diseases and initiate research programmes based on these.
BD is expanding its long-running partnership with the blood collection company Babson Diagnostics. The two companies have been working together since 2019 on a device that can gather small volumes of blood from the capillaries in the fingertip without requiring any specialized training, and beginning with a focus on supporting primary care in retail settings.
Wednesday, Australian biotech CSL said (PDF) the regulatory review of its $11.7 billion acquisition of Switzerland’s Vifor Pharma will take “a few more months,” suggesting it won’t be able to close the transaction by June 2022 as previously expected.
