Janssen hit for kickbacks

The Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) has banned four pharmaceutical companies from selling some of their products for 30 days for offering kickbacks to doctors and pharmacists.

The Korea drug regulator said Friday that it took administrative action against a multinational drug maker and three domestic firms for trying to boost the sales of their drugs through inappropriate methods.

The firms are Janssen Korea, Hanmi Pharmaceutical, Shin Poong Pharm. and JRP.

The illegal means of sales the pharmaceutical companies engaged in were uncovered through an inspection by the Fair Trade Commission.

The provision of kickbacks or “rebates” (an industry term used to describe the act of giving cash or other material benefits in return for selling their products) has been a long-standing bad practice prevalent in the pharmaceutical industry.

The banned companies have provided cash and other kickbacks such as food and entertainment to doctors and pharmacists in order to have them favor their products over others. The sales ban will be enforced from next week.

Janssen Korea, a Korean branch of Johnson and Johnson, received a one-month ban on six of its products including two types of Pariet tablets (a gastric ulcer drug), Topamax Springkle capsules (epilepsy medicine), and Ultracet tablets (a painkiller). The company apparently provided expensive meals to medical organization officials from 2006 through 2009.

Hanmi provided kickbacks to medical personnel from July 2009 through May 2012 to boost the sales of 20 of its products. The products will be banned from sales from Dec. 21 through Jan. 20. They include Kossac tablets (cold medicine) and Mucolase tablets (anti-inflammatory).

Shin Poong received a one-month ban on selling Lefocin tablets (antibiotics) and dozens of others for providing kickbacks to healthcare officials from 2008 through 2010.

JRP, another Korean company, had Unidon-M tablets (digestive medicine) and Furazol capsules (antifungal drug) and 13 other products banned from sales for giving cash to doctors from 2009 through 2012.

In an earlier crackdown in November, the KFDA imposed a sales ban on Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Korea, the Korean branch of the Japanese pharmaceutical company, for providing kickbacks.

The KFDA said it recently received a list of 30 companies that engaged in the illegal practices and has already issued a sales ban for 11 of them including Pacific Pharma, Sama Pharm, Han Wha Pharma and Sky New Pharm. <The Korea Times/Yun Suh-young>