Tag Archives: healthcare in China

C-Sections in China, what if they are more common when parents know its a boy?

Written by Damjan Denoble. Posted on February 11, 2010. Filed under China. No comments.

China's low gender empowerment is also reflected in the country's preference for boys over girls. Chinese parents are not shy about using ultrasound to determine the sex of their children, and there is evidence that the proliferation of ultrasound machines coincides with a rise in selective abortions whereby parents. This is also a formula for higher C-section rates. When a woman is in the doctor's office with her husband, and they find out that the child is a boy, how great is the pressure on the woman to have a C-section if the doctor says this is absolutely the surest way to ensure the healthy delivery of the baby? This then leads directly to the second thought. In that Lancet C-section study, wouldn't it be interesting to take a look at how many of the C-section babies were boys?

Pfizer’s China Strategy shows why they are still alive in the Big Pharma Consolidation Wars

Written by Damjan Denoble. Posted on February 3, 2010. Filed under China, Marketing Health, News Items. 2 Comments.

Unlike physicians in the US, Chinese physicians have long gotten used to depending on drug sales for the majority of their pay check. State provided salaries are small, and hospital oversight is opaque enough to make under the table payments from drug sales reps easy, and widespread. With the new Essential Drug List that was finalized this past summer, under the table payments are going to be much hard to make because and overwhelming percentage of the most profitable drugs are going to be sold exclusively at rural hospitals for a flat fee. The new reality will involve a lot more 'feet on the ground' because of where the most drugs are being sold (rural pharmacies) and because it will now take more time to persuade doctors that a particular product is the best product. This is where Pfizer is ahead of the curve