On November 26, the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau revealed that twenty-one medical companies had a record of misconduct for offering commercial bribes. The blacklisted companies will not be allowed to do business in Beijing for the next two years. During this period medical institutions in Beijing should not buy their products.

All medical companies offering financial incentives or other benefits to medical institutions or staff will have their negative conduct listed in legal and public records.

The blacklist was finalized in accordance with the Ministry of Health and the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau's regulations that aim at purifying Beijing's medicine market and standardizing business orders for medicine purchases and sales.

Most hospitals and medical enterprises have approved of this practice, but there were also objections. "In fact, we do not advocate giving bribes to hospitals, but many other companies have been doing this; we can not survive if we do not do it as well. Many medical enterprises that do similar business are also involved in commercial bribery but they have not been investigated and punished,"said Mr. Ren, the legal representative of a Beijing Fuji Medical Instruments Company.

Ren felt that it was unfair to punish small enterprises first before improving the social climate that condoned graft. Punishment of this kind equates with a "death sentence" for his small business.

Managers from two other medical companies said that the news was very sudden; they are still trying to get more information.

(China.org.cn by Yang Xi, November 29, 2007)