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Infant formula: Doctors warned
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China’s health authorities have reiterated that medical professionals who promote and sell breast milk substitutes will be severely punished. The warning comes after shady ties between French brand Dumex and hospitals around the nation were exposed recently.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission said it is beefing up communication with other departments and speeding up the process for amending the infant formula regulations, Legal Evening News reported yesterday.
Under current laws, medical institutions are banned from gaining kickbacks or benefits from infant formula makers. Violators face an investigation and can be stiffly penalized.
Acts that constitute commercial bribery could lead to criminal charges being filed against the culprits, the commission said.
The scandal was brought to light last week by China Central Television Station. Dumex staff were exposed giving bribes to hospital officials in north China’s Tianjin Municipality in return for pushing the company’s products on to newborns. As a result, the babies were becoming addicted to the Dumex taste.
Dumex China issued a statement, saying it was shocked and promised to investigate its Tianjin branch.
It was reported that Dumex earned nearly 6 billion yuan (US$980 million) last year from 30 provinces and cities to become the market leader in China.
Even before Dumex finished its probe, however, CCTV came out with more evidence. Tianjin was not the sole case, the bribery extended to Beijing and Liaoning, Jilin, Hebei and Heilongjiang provinces as well as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, it reported.
An insider unveiled e-mail exchanges from salespeople in six sales territories which were segmented by Dumex according to geography.
The northern division was recorded to have spent up to nearly 500,000 yuan on medical professionals in April, one such e-mail showed.
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