By Na Jeong-ju
The prosecution said Monday it has indicted an executive of Korea Otsuka Pharmaceutical for making illegally payments to more than 850 doctors through a survey firm.
The doctors are also under investigation for receiving bribes from the pharmacy firm, based in Gangnam, southern Seoul. It allegedly paid a total of 1.3 billion won in return for their responses to a survey on two of its new products.
“We’ve concluded that the firm adopted the survey to promote the use of its drugs among doctors and provided kickbacks to them. The doctors received 50,000 won per questionnaire,” a prosecutor told reporters. “In one case, a doctor was paid some 5 million won after answering 100 questionnaires.”
The Korea Otsuka executive, identified by his surname Lee, has been indicted on bribery charges. The doctors who received money from him will also be punished, the prosecutor said.
The prosecution suspects there are many other pharmaceutical firms that have provided illegal “rebates” to doctors using similar methods.
The kickbacks provided to doctors and pharmacists by drug makers have long been accused of being the main reason behind high drug prices here.
To make medicine dealings more transparent, the government has been punishing both drug manufacturers, and doctors and pharmacists who accept the kickbacks since late 2010.
Under new rules, doctors and pharmacists convicted for taking money from drug firms in return for prescribing or recommending their products will face a prison term of up to one year or have their license suspended for a year.