Thursday, December 19, 2013

China arrests former Shanghai health deputy

SHANGHAI Thu Dec 19, 2013 5:06am EST





<span id="articleText"/>SHANGHAI Dec 19 (Reuters) - Authorities in the city of Shanghai have arrested the former deputy health commission chief, prosecutors said, at a time when China's health sector has come under the spotlight for widespread corruption.



<span id="midArticle_0"/>Huang Fengping, formerly second in command of the city's Commission of Health and Family Planning, was arrested on Wednesday for "suspected crimes", the city's prosecution service said in a statement on its website.



<span id="midArticle_1"/>It gave no more details.



<span id="midArticle_2"/>The arrest comes as China steps up its scrutiny into corruption in the medical sector, with attention especially on graft in the pharmaceutical and infant milk formula markets.



<span id="midArticle_3"/>The Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission and the Shanghai Municipal People's Prosecution Service were not immediately available for comment.



<span id="midArticle_4"/>Huang worked at Shanghai's Huashan Hospital for more than a decade before taking the vice director role in May last year, the official Shanghai Daily said in a report.



<span id="midArticle_5"/>China's regulators have been investigating numerous foreign and domestic drug companies, with inquiries ranging from suspected corruption to how drugs are priced.



<span id="midArticle_6"/>The most high-profile investigation involves British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline.



<span id="midArticle_7"/>Chinese police launched as investigation into accusations in July that GSK funnelled up to 3 billion yuan ($492 million) to travel agencies to facilitate bribes to doctors and officials to boost its drug sales.



<span id="midArticle_8"/>GSK said on Wednesday it would stop paying doctors for promoting its drugs and scrap prescription targets for its marketing staff worldwide.



<span id="midArticle_9"/>However, the company said the measures were not directly related to its Chinese problems and were rather part of a broad effort to improve transparency (Reporting by Adam Jourdan; additional reporting by SHANGHAI newsroom; Editing by Robert Birsel)



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