Pharma giants included in China's investigation into pricing of foreign imports

China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has launched an investigation into UK pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline’s (LSE: GSK) operations in China, reported China Daily this week.

The NDRC has begun a survey on production costs at 60 firms, including GSK, US pharma major Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK), Japanese drug major Astellas Pharma (TYO: 4503), USA-based Baxter International (NYSE: BAX), Swiss drug major Novartis’ (NOVN: VX) generics unit Sandoz and family-owned German drug major Boehringer Ingelheim. The inquiry will also look at 10 Chinese companies, among them Sinopharm Group and Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine.

It is thought the investigation could focus on the difference in prices of imported products sold by foreign firms in China compared with those in other markets. This could have been prompted by China’s updated National Essential Drug Lists (NEDL), which was published on March 15, and came into force on May 1. Updated every three years, the latest version covers 520 medicines, adding 213 drugs from the 2009 list.