As reported on Reed Smith’s Life Sciences Legal Update blog, the local Beijing office of the Ministry of Health (MOH) of the People’s Republic of China recently announced that it has started a three-month review of the use of high-value medical consumables and large-scale medical equipment in Beijing. Noting that prior inspections of hospitals had found continuing problems with the misuse and overuse of medical devices to increase profits, the investigation is intended to strengthen hospitals’ management of the use of medical devices and to regulate the use of high value medical consumables. The Beijing MOH will also develop a database that will track the price and model of devices implanted in each patient, require hospitals to improve their purchasing management systems, and conduct periodic inspections of hospitals’ purchasing and management of medical consumables. For more information about this recent investigation and increased life sciences regulatory enforcement in China, see the full post.
