According to media reports, from now until the end of this year, the relevant state departments will carry out anti-unfair competition enforcement actions in key areas across the country, and investigate and deal with a group of typical meanings that seriously affect the competition order and infringe the legitimate rights and interests of the consumers. Unfair competition cases.
The “key areas” mentioned here undoubtedly include the pharmaceutical industry that has always been the focus of attention. Then, what are the main aspects of unfair competition in the pharmaceutical industry, and what impacts of enforcement actions on hospitals and doctors should be a concern of the industry.
What are the unfair competition behaviors in the pharmaceutical industry?
There are three main types, one is monopoly. As an economic phenomenon, monopoly appears in capitalist society, is the opposite of competition, and is the inevitable result of competition development. Monopoly originally refers to the manipulation of trade on the high ground of the market, and later refers to control and monopoly.
There are three main reasons for forming a monopoly.
1 Natural monopoly: Production costs make a producer more efficient than a large number of producers, which is the most common form of monopoly.
2 Resource monopoly: The key resources are owned by one company.
3 Administrative monopoly: The government gives a company the exclusive right to produce certain products or services, also known as monopoly.
01 Monopoly
In the pharmaceutical industry, monopoly has always been regarded as one of the important promoters of high drug prices, which not only seriously hinders the smooth and orderly development of the pharmaceutical industry, but also affects the people's satisfaction with medical services and even the happiness of life.
For example, the monopoly of APIs has led to a surprisingly large increase in the price of medicines, many of which are generally due to market outages; the monopoly of medical devices has resulted in high prices and corruption; in the centralized procurement of drugs, some local government departments abuse administrative power to exclude restrictions. This has led to a false high drug price and a shortage of supplies.
02 Commercial bribery
In the field of medicine purchase and sale, commercial bribery is a serious social problem, covering almost every aspect of pharmaceutical procurement, circulation and use.
The Law of the People's Republic of China on Unfair Competition Law stipulates that the operator shall not use property or other means to bribe the staff of the opposite party of the transaction, the unit or individual entrusted to handle the relevant affairs by the counterpart of the transaction, or use the power or influence to influence the transaction. Unit or individual to seek trading opportunities or competitive advantage.
Otherwise it is considered a bribe. This provision is consistent with the provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment (6) for bribery and bribery.
03 False propaganda
In terms of anti-unfair competition, the focus of false propaganda is on the health care products market, social medical treatment and medical advertisements. The damage caused is enormous. The focus of anti-unfair competition in the medical field and the impact it may have on hospitals and doctors.
