China's medical insurance regulator, which set up a credit evaluation system for pharmaceutical pricing and procurement in August 2020, has uncovered a significant case of commercial bribery in the healthcare sector. Over a three-year analysis of bribery cases in pharmaceutical sales, the regulator found that some medical institutions have been too lax in internal education and management, leading to staff members accepting bribes from non-compliant companies at alarming frequency and scale.

Fresh details have emerged about a long-running bribery scheme at the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, following a previously publicized case involving a Shanghai-based trading company that paid kickbacks for stents and balloon catheters. The hospital in Shijiazhuang was implicated in nine separate criminal judgments in the second half of 2025, with staff members found to have accepted bribes on 46 separate occasions. The single largest payment reached 16.58 million yuan in a scheme that ran undetected for as long as 11 years, bringing the cumulative value of bribes to a staggering 184 million yuan.

An investigation into the case has identified more than 30 pharmaceutical companies that conducted long-term bribery campaigns targeting hospital personnel. Among them, 11 companies including Hebei Xiangen Medical Equipment Trading Co., Ltd., Beijing Jinkaihui Medical Device Co., Ltd., Hebei Mingshi Medical Equipment Trading Co., Ltd., and Shijiazhuang Shangdaoxuan Medical Equipment Trading Co., Ltd., have been charged with unit bribery offenses. Hebei Xiangen Medical Equipment Trading Co., Ltd. alone paid 20.64 million yuan in bribes to hospital staff to secure sales of medical consumables at inflated prices.

The bribery case revolved primarily around approximately 30 types of medical consumables, including intraocular lenses, drug-eluting stent systems, rapid exchange balloon dilation catheters, pacemakers, and bioabsorbable medical membranes. These consumables generated bribes totaling about 174 million yuan. An additional 10 pharmaceutical products, including naproxen sodium for injection, oxiracetam injection, lansoprazole for injection, and nalmefene hydrochloride injection, were linked to bribery payments of roughly 10 million yuan.

The National Healthcare Security Administration has vowed to take decisive action to address these issues. It plans to strengthen its credit evaluation system for procurement, enhance oversight of marketing authorization holders, and intensify targeted inspections. The administration remains committed to eliminating illegal sales practices in the pharmaceutical sector and reducing artificially inflated prices of medical devices and drugs. At the same time, hospitals are being urged to strengthen their internal control mechanisms and resist being targeted by companies engaged in these corrupt practices, safeguarding the rights of insured patients and ensuring medical staff remain protected from such schemes.