Why did the 78-year-old chairman and the pharmaceutical leader step on the thunder of "prescription drugs" propaganda?
Author |Gao Yan, Zhang Ye.
Editor丨Li Baiyu.
* |Bronco Finance.
Experienced former chairman of listed companies, and listed pharmaceutical companies with "A+H+US" sharesWill it be "knowingly"?
Our prescription drugs fromYear 2000After the promulgation of the "Measures for the Classification and Management of Prescription Drugs and Non-prescription Drugs (Trial)", it can only be used in professional areasAdvertisements in medical newspapers and magazines must be aimed at professionals with medical knowledge.
It stands to reason that industry professionals and listed companies should be familiar with this provision, after all, they will be punished and fined almost every time they are discovered. But recently, the pharmaceutical industry has** There are two unbelievable news that make people wonder.
BeiGene's wholly-owned subsidiary was fined 400,000 yuan for violating the law
On January 17, the Jing'an District Municipal Supervision Bureau in Shanghai released an "Administrative Penalty Decision" made after more than a year of investigation. BeiGene (Shanghai) Biotech*** hereinafter referred to as BeiGene (Shanghai)) illegally published prescription drug advertisements and used advertisements to falsely advertise goods or services to deceive and mislead consumers, and the Jing'an District Municipal Supervision Bureau decided to fine it 400,000 yuan.
The penalized company is an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of BeiGene, which is mainly responsible for the marketing of BeiGene's anti-cancer prescription drug pamiparib capsules (brand: Parkway).
BeiGene, on the other hand, is one of the few "A+H+American" listed pharmaceutical 688235 companies in China, Hong Kong, and the United States at the same timesh；06160.hk；bgne.us）。
*: Canned Picture Gallery.
This happened in August 2022, when BeiGene's fined subsidiary held a "Parkway City Meeting" event on the third floor of the Courtyard by Marriott Shanghai Puxi, promoting medicines in public places by laying roll-up banners and distributing leaflets at the venue"Parkway (Pamiparib Capsule)".
The drug is the only approved targeted drug for drug-resistant ovarian cancer；CGCS (Chinese Anti-Cancer Association** Oncology Professional Committee) guidelines recommend pamiparib as the preferred drug for **ovarian cancer**; The drug has been included in the national medical insurance catalogue at the end of 2021, and the monthly ** cost of medical insurance patients is only 1929 yuan.
In the report, the Economic Observer quoted the Jing'an District Municipal Supervision Bureau as saying that BeiGene (Shanghai) advertised the prescription drug Parmiparib in the form of roll-up banners and leaflets in public places, and its advertising target was unspecified. The above-mentioned advertising behavior will have an impact on the choices of ordinary patients and consumers who do not have professional medical and medical knowledge, and cannot guarantee the scientific, correct, reasonable and safe use of drugs.
Jing'an District Municipal Supervision Bureau pointed outThe above acts violated Article 15 of the Advertising Law and constituted illegal publication of advertisements for prescription drugs. Whereas, the duration of the offence is less than 3 months; The number of goods sold before and after the advertisement is increased by less than 30%; No social impact; It is the first time to violate the law and actively cooperate with the investigation, etc., after comprehensive consideration, he was given a lighter punishment and fined 400,000 yuan.
In response to the punishment, a person from BeiGene's public relations department responded to **All contents are subject to the public announcement of Jing'an District Municipal Supervision Bureau.
The former chairman of Huadong Medicine is the platform of "Reducing Feizhen".
Coincidentally, in East China Medicine (000963SZ) launched the first domestic GLP-1** injection liraglutide (trade name: rilupine), which has been approved for ** indication for less than half a year, and a company established in September 2023, Chengze Pharmaceutical, won the marketing cooperation of Huadong Medicine, and held a grand forum.
WhileHuadong Medicine (000963.)Li Bangliang, the 78-year-old former chairman of SZ, personally introduced the research and development process of GLP-1 drugs and the birth of rilupine at the forum, which also caused an uproar in the industry.
On December 16, 2023, Chengze Pharmaceutical, a new partner of East China Pharmaceutical, held a global press conference of "Reducing Philip" at the Hangzhou International Expo Center, inviting many heads of medical aesthetic institutions and industry professionals to attend.
In the name of "Huadong Medicine" and "the world's first GLP-1 weight loss product", the event promoted "Fei Zhen" and "Fei Zhen" to play homophonic stalks, which are the same as "** needle".
*: Medical aesthetic institutions*** tweets.
According to Huadong Medicine in an interview with "Times Weekly", "Reducing Feizhen" is a product launched by Chengze Pharmaceutical, including meal replacement, rilupine, weight management services, etc., and does not only refer to the product of rilupine.
By packaging the prescription drugs of "Party A" into medical beauty products and selling them, Chengze Pharmaceutical has exceeded the norm and stepped on the red line of prescription drug supervision.
In December 2023, Chengze Pharma signed a cooperation agreement with Zhongmei Huadong, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Huadong Pharmaceutical, to entrust Chengze Pharma to carry out the marketing services of rilupine prefills and refills in specific medical institutions.
*: Huadong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. ***WeChat***
According to the publicity of medical cosmetology institutions, the majority of the profits of Chengze Pharmaceutical's products are not necessarily attributable to Huadong Medicine. Propaganda said,"Jianfeizhen" is "the first extension product of liraglutide based on the first injection of liraglutide approved in China by Health Village Industry Group, Jingyi Group, Victoria's Secret Group and Huadong Pharmaceutical Group".
Immediately,Huadong Medicine issued a "statement letter" to clarify, alleging that Chengze Pharmaceutical's marketing and product promotion activities have not been authorized or licensed by Huadong Medicine, and seriously violate the requirements of the agreement for Chengze Pharmaceutical's legal and compliant marketing services, and the above behaviors need to be stopped immediately. And said,The Company shall not be liable for this and reserves the right to claim for damages arising therefrom, as provided by contractual remedies.
Although Huadong Medicine ended up "cracking down on counterfeiting" this time, it did not substantially punish Chengze Biotech, which was in breach of contract publicity, but only emphasized that it did not take responsibility, and was criticized by the outside world for being suspected of "dumping the pot". The reporter of "Time Weekly" askedWill you continue to cooperate with Chengze Biotech in the future? Huadong Medicine said: ".At present, we have not received any notice of termination of cooperation
"**Lake" wet shoes?
According to the on-site PPT picture circulating on social **, Li Bangliang, the former chairman of Huadong Medicine, delivered a speech as "Chairman of Hangzhou Huadong Pharmaceutical Group Holdings" and "Chairman of Chengze Pharmaceutical".
The 78-year-old Li Bangliang can be regarded as a veteran of the listed company East China Medicine. According to the previous announcement, Li Bangliang has been working in the company for more than 50 years, and has served as the chairman of the board from 1993 to 2019.
In June 2019, Li Bangliang stepped down as chairman of Huadong Pharmaceutical due to his age, ending his tenure of more than 20 years. On the same day, the company appointed Li Bangliang as the honorary chairman of Huadong Medicine for a term of three years until June 5, 2022.
The current shareholder of Chengze Pharmaceutical is only one natural person, Wang Zhiying. According to the information of the business check app love enterprise check,Wang Zhiying holds Jiuyuan Gene 367% and indirectly holding 392% equity. In addition, many of the companies invested by Wang Zhiying contain "Huadong Medicine" in their names.
Among the companies invested by Wang Zhiying, many of them have "East China Medicine" in their names
Judging from Li Bangliang's position as the chairman of the company, Chengze Pharmaceutical has a very close relationship with him. Only 3 months after the establishment of Chengze Pharmaceutical, it got the "sweet pastry" of the specific marketing service agreement of East China Medicine's Laglutide Injection, which may also be related to Li Bangliang.
According to the PPT that came out at the event, there is only a two-word difference between Hangzhou Huadong Pharmaceutical Group Holdings, of which Li Bangliang is the chairman, and Hangzhou Huadong Pharmaceutical Group, a shareholder of listed companies. Laymen often don't know the difference between the two, but there is no equity connection between the two.
According to the pharmaceutical industry's ** "Health Knowledge Bureau" report,Founded in 2002, "Huadong Pharmaceutical Group Holdings" was more like a shell company established by the management of Huadong Pharmaceutical in order to achieve a management buyout (MBO) that was popular at the time.
According to industrial and commercial data, Huadong Pharmaceutical Group Holdings changed its name to Hangzhou Huasheng Pharmaceutical Group on October 12, 2023, referred to as Huasheng Pharmaceutical). Before June 2019, Li Bangliang served as the chairman and legal representative of the company for a long time. Wang Zhiqiang, the current chairman and general manager of Huasheng Pharmaceutical, also served as the executive director of Chengze Pharmaceutical, which was promoted in violation of regulations.
Although the MBO was ultimately not achieved, at the moment,Huasheng Pharma has a controlling stake in companies that work closely with Huadong Pharmaceutical, such as Huadong Pharmaceutical New Drug Research Institute and Jiuyuan Gene.
According to the previous announcement, in August 2017, Zhongmei Huadong, a subsidiary of Huadong Pharmaceutical, purchased Jiuyuan Gene 21 for 80.66 million yuan6% equity, and at the same time acquired liraglutide new drug technology.
However, as of January 3, 2024, industrial and commercial data show that Sino-US East China only holds 07% equity, Jiuyuan Gene has 936% of the equity is controlled by Huasheng Pharmaceutical, and Li Bangliang holds 116%。The remaining shares are held by 9 institutions or natural persons.
Li Bangliang seems to be a key figure in this bureau, he is not only the chairman of Chengze Pharmaceutical, but also the former chairman of Huadong Medicine and Huasheng Pharmaceutical, and also owns part of the equity of Jiuyuan Gene, the developer of "Liluping".
It is worth noting that Fu Hang, the current chairman and general manager of Jiuyuan Gene, also delivered a speech at the global press conference of Chengze Pharmaceutical. Considering the close relationship between Jiuyuan Gene and Huasheng Pharmaceutical and Chengze Pharmaceutical, his appearance on the scene was unexpected and reasonable.
Huadong Medicine has not replied positively whether it knows about Li Bangliang and Fu Hang's attendance at the press conference.
Jiuyuan Gene, which developed "Lilupin", is currently applying for an IPO and is about to stage a capital feast of "insiders".
Be careful with prescription drugs!
What is puzzling is that neither Li Bangliang and Fu Hang, who are veterans of the pharmaceutical industry, nor a wholly-owned subsidiary of BeiGene, are unaware of the consequences of illegal promotion of prescription drugs. But why do they knowingly take risks?
Moreover, because of the involvement of listed pharmaceutical companies, theoretically, the materials used by the marketing department, whether it is an invitation letter, a poster, a roll-up banner, a leaflet, etc., need to be reviewed by the compliance department and the medical department of the listed pharmaceutical company. These two news also exposed the loopholes in the risk control of these two listed pharmaceutical companies.
However, another noteworthy phenomenon is that BeiGene's performance has increased after the "riot operation". In the third quarter of 2023, BeiGene achieved revenue of 562.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1115%, achieving a net profit of 134.1 billion yuan, a net loss of 37 in the same period last year700 million yuan.
*: Canned Picture Gallery.
The situation is similar in East China Medicine. Recently, Huadong Medicine announced that it is expected to achieve a net profit of 28 net profit attributable to the parent company in 2023$1.2 billion to $286.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 125% to 145%。
A former chief pharmaceutical analyst of the first company mentionedThere is often a firewall between the distributors of pharmaceutical companies and listed companies, and they often carry out sales, whether it is a closed-door seminar or an open forum activity, and often play a side ball through roll-up banners, posters, and leaflets, but if they are not noticed by the regulatory authorities, they will not be punished, which makes many practitioners have a fluke mentality, "knowing the law and breaking the law", and listed companies will also "turn a blind eye" to this behavior of external partners in order to grow their performance.
Pharmaceutical compliance lawyer Li Cengyan analyzed in an interview with the "Economic Observer".BeiGene's fine is a signal of the SAMR's strict enforcement of the law in the field of medical advertising: "This case is of great warning significance to the society, and other pharmaceutical companies should know in the future that even if they hold a closed-door meeting for doctors, roll-up banners cannot be casually (written and displayed)." ”
Yang Zhaoquan, a lawyer at Beijing Weinuo Law Firm, said that the illegal promotion of prescription drugsChengze Pharmaceutical is suspected of violating the rules. But if there is no evidence that Huadong Pharmaceutical is involved, Huadong Pharmaceutical will not be penalized by regulators.
Hao Chunli, a former compliance manager of Beijing Yingke (Shenzhen) Law Firm and a former Internet medical company, pointed out to "Hexun.com", ".The behavior of the honorary chairman of the company may be identified as the behavior of Huadong Pharmaceutical Company, and Huadong Pharmaceutical and Chengze Pharmaceutical may be identified as joint advertising and publicity, and the goodwill of Huadong Pharmaceutical may be affected as a result.
Hao Chunli said that China has always been strict about the advertising of prescription drugs, so the incident is likely to attract the attention of regulators. Although Huadong Medicine issued the "Declaration Letter", because it is a product marketing authorization holder, and the company's (former) honorary chairman delivered a speech as "Hangzhou Huadong Pharmaceutical Group Holdings", if the relevant publicity is not deleted in time or causes damage to consumers, it may also face punishment from the regulatory authorities.
At present, the punishment for BeiGene's illegal promotion of "prescription drugs" that occurred more than a year ago has been implemented, and it was fined 400,000 yuan at the beginning of the new year. So what punishment will Chengze Pharmaceutical and Li Bangliang face in promoting the "Reduction of Philippine" incident that occurred at the end of last year? We'll have to wait and see.
What do you think about listed pharmaceutical companies illegally promoting "prescription drugs" through distributors? Let's talk in the comment section.