Chen Wen-hsiung and 17 others, thought to include pharmaceutical company owners, has been interviewed by the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office . This is part of a 12-month long Anti-Corruption Act probe. Wen-hsiung was an employee of the Taiwanese Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This agency is not related to the U.S. FDA.
The charge against Wen-hsiung and his associates is that he allegedly received in excess of $150,000, accumulated over two years, by passing on confidential information to pharmaceutical companies. This included providing the time and date of “unannounced” Good Manufacturing Practice inspections to companies allowing them time to prepare facilities, processes and documents. He is also accused of helping facilities pass inspections and for certain products to be approved.
According to Taipei Times, the inquiry discovered that when Chen planned inspections of pharmaceutical companies he gave instructions to the owners over how to deposit the alleged bribes. For this, he would hold meetings in coffee shops or receive gifts containing money. This was discovered when the Republic of China anticorruption agency was tipped off by the FDA, and Chen was put under surveillance for more than a year.
Eva Teng, a spokeswoman with the National Health Insurance Civic Surveillance Alliance, told the Fierce Pharmaceutical Manufacturing that it is believed the corruption most likely widespread. “It would seem incredulous for just one FDA inspector to able to shield the companies from proper checks and monitoring,” she said. “The scandal clearly shows poor management and negligence by the FDA.”
The pharmaceutical organizations implicated, according to Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, include Genuine Chemical Pharmaceutical, CBC Biotechnological & Pharmaceutical, Wei Li Pharmaceutical, Paitun Biochemical Pharmacy, Dersan Pharmaceutical and Kuang Nan Pharmaceutical.
