China News Service, August 31. According to the website of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, recently, in the special work to deal with illegal activities in traditional Chinese medicine, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, together with relevant departments, investigated and dealt with two illegal marketing and publicity issues involving traditional Chinese medicine online in accordance with the law. The relevant situation is now reported as follows.
1. “Illegal marketing case of ‘Hong Kong Pharmacy’ online store”. Internet information such as "'Hong Kong Pharmacy' does not sell medicine and is not in Hong Kong?" has triggered heated discussions. Many online stores opened in the name of "Hong Kong Pharmacy" sell products such as "Tou Gu Gao" and "Wushi Pills", and are suspected of false advertising in live broadcast marketing. After investigation, products such as "Tougu Paste" are daily necessities, not medicines. However, the relevant stores claimed to have pain relief and other effects in live broadcast marketing, which is suspected of violating the relevant provisions of Article 17 of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China. Our bureau handed over relevant clues to the market supervision department. After supervision and rectification, major Internet platforms such as JD.com, Pinduoduo, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Kuaishou removed a total of 35 stores without valid trademark registration certificates and Hong Kong brand store authorization, 3,318 illegal product links, 342 illegal advertisements, intercepted 460 illegal advertising materials, and urged the platforms to improve their internal compliance control systems.
2. “The case of a doctor with millions of fans recommending prescription drugs in violation of regulations.” The Weibo account "Green Hornet-Bee" published the content "Doctors with millions of fans exchange words and recommend the same prescription drug", revealing that some medical staff used online platforms to illegally recommend the prescription drug "Detox Clearing Granules" in the name of health science popularization. After investigation, the incident involved 22 medical institutions and 27 doctors in multiple provinces, and the illegal recommendation of the prescription drug "Paidu Qingzhi Granules" was basically true. Relevant provincial traditional Chinese medicine authorities will verify and handle the cases one by one in conjunction with the health and market supervision departments. Our bureau has asked the cyberspace department to remove all the videos involved, and urge the medical institutions involved to conduct comprehensive self-examinations to investigate the operation of medical staff’s online accounts.
Although the two incidents took different forms, they both used the Internet platform to carry out illegal marketing and publicity in the name of traditional Chinese medicine. They were highly concealed and had a wide impact, damaging the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and affecting the reputation of the traditional Chinese medicine industry. In the next step, our bureau will improve the information exchange, clue transfer, and coordination linkage mechanisms with the Internet Information and Market Supervision and other departments, increase the investigation and punishment of illegal marketing and publicity behaviors involving traditional Chinese medicine on the Internet, consolidate the main responsibilities of medical institutions and Internet platforms, standardize the health science popularization behavior of medical staff, and strengthen the popularization of traditional Chinese medicine science and the protection of consumer rights and interests. At the same time, consumers are reminded: when purchasing products related to traditional Chinese medicine, please go through formal channels and pay attention to verify the qualifications of the business entities and product information; they must increase their awareness of marketing promotions carried out in the name of traditional Chinese medicine and beware of being deceived.
