Tag Archives: red envelope payments in China

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