Beijing: The Chinese Ministry of Finance has fined 19 pharmaceutical companies for violating the country’s accounting law and artificially inflating prices for medicines, according to the ministry’s website.
The ministry and the National Healthcare Security Administration launched an inspection of accounting information of 77 pharmaceutical companies in 2019 in response to the long-reported problem of high drug prices.
As a result of the ministry’s inspections, “administrative sanctions were imposed on 19 pharmaceutical companies,” with each of them being fined for 30,000 yuan ($4,500) to 50,000 yuan — the maximum possible fine for such offenses.
The inspection focused on analyzing the cost composition of the companies’ products and found a number of major problems in the accounting records of some pharmaceutical companies, including the use of false checks and invoices, as well as incorrect accounting.
