What the pharmacists of China hide from the whole world in luxurious Versailles offices

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

A Chinese pharmaceutical company recently found itself at the center of a high-profile scandal. Their press office posted a series of photographs of the company's interior on the official website. The pictures caused a storm of indignation among users. The extravagant interior, decorated in the style of the Palace of Versailles, where everything is in gold and marble, is worthy of a Colombian drug cartel, not a factory. In the end, the company had to make excuses that all the photos posted on the Internet were just part of the museum. What are Chinese pharmacists hiding behind such a luxurious facade?

The state-owned drug manufacturer in China, Harbin Pharmaceutical Group, has recently received extremely harsh criticism. Established in 1977, this enterprise is the sixth pharmaceutical factory based in Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China. In addition to the production of medicines, the pharmaceutical plant also produces beverages and dietary products.

Recently, a series of controversial images were posted on their official website. The thing is that the company's office is an incredibly luxurious palace, worthy of a mafia boss rather than a pharmaceutical company. Everything inside is in marble and simply filled with gold.

Harbin Pharmaceuticals is the second largest drug manufacturer in the country. The construction of such a magnificent, luxuriously decorated palace cost pharmacists more than fifteen million dollars!

In the building, all corridors are finished with precious woods, decorated with fine carvings and gold foil inlays. The photographs show several people in simple clothes, presumably employees. They are completely overshadowed by four marble columns, as thick as the trunks of mighty trees. Above all this splendor is a three-tiered crystal chandelier hanging from a gilded ceiling. The photo shows a lush hall, reminiscent of a concert hall. A white grand piano is installed in the center of it. The conference rooms are furnished with luxurious traditional Chinese mahogany furnishings and wooden lanterns.

Unsurprisingly, the photos generated a huge response among Chinese internet users and provoked a flurry of negative criticism. Outraged people wrote, "This is a palace built on the suffering of millions of patients," and, "Now I finally know why the Chinese cannot afford to go to the doctor and buy medicine."

The townspeople living next to the building also reacted angrily to the photographs, saying the money should have been spent on fixing sewage problems at the plant. A few months earlier, the company was accused of illegally dumping waste water, waste gases and industrial waste. Then the management announced that they did not have the money to solve this problem.

Among other things, the company's annual report showed that although they spent 19.6 million yuan (US $ 3 million) on environmental protection, they spent 27 times more on advertising. According to the Ministry of Finance, in the same year, the company made a profit of almost 2 trillion yuan!

After seeing such violent backlash, Harbin Pharmaceuticals removed the sensational photos from their website. The press service made a statement that these are generally photographs of the woodcut art museum. It is simply located in the same building as the company's headquarters.

Lu Chuanyu, head of the company, said that apart from the great lobby, the design and layout of the work area is generally simple. At the same time, the part of the building that belongs to the art museum, located from the fourth to the sixth floor, looks really luxurious. Yes, it is lavishly decorated, with crystal chandeliers and elaborately crafted copper-plated wooden figures. There are also superbly decorated meeting rooms and lounges.

According to Mr. Lu, the museum was created to promote cultural development and highlight the company's social responsibility. When asked why the pharmaceutical company decorated a section of the plant's art museum in such a luxurious style, the spokesman did not answer anything intelligible.

Pharmaceutical companies and hospitals across China are notorious for paying hefty bonuses to doctors who prescribe expensive drugs or order high-tech tests. Data from the Ministry of Health show that about 50% of total health spending in China is spent on drug purchases, a disproportionate amount compared to other countries.

In the face of growing public discontent, the company removed the sensational photos from its website. All attempts by Harbin Pharmaceuticals to divert public attention seem to have done little to calm the anger of the masses.

The Chinese newspaper Southeast Press said in its microblog, "The simple art of printing on wood doesn't need such an extravagant museum!" An Internet user named Ttparishilton on Sina Weibo wrote, "Since Harbin Pharmaceutical Group's sixth pharmaceutical plant is a state-controlled entity, we can ask whose money the company made its artistic dream come true and who should be eligible to approve the spending."

Harbin Pharmaceutical is not the first government agency in China to draw public scorn. There are several other businesses that have lavished money on a building that seems to have no other purpose than to satisfy the vanity of management. More recently, the local government in rural Anhui province has received a storm of criticism. This happened after their plans to create a luxurious complex with an area of about twenty hectares were published on the Internet.

One of the most impressive examples of such excesses also caused huge outrage. One local environmental bureau used paving slabs for the blind to create patterns on either side of the main road leading to their headquarters.

However, Harbin Pharmaceuticals appears to have sparked more than a wave of public outrage. This reaction can be attributed to the fact that the population in China is extremely dissatisfied with the state of the country's health care system.

In recent years, the number of complaints about expensive drugs has been growing. As a result, this creates a very high cost of medical services. This, in turn, along with a sharp rise in housing prices and education costs, is one of the main sources of discontent among the Chinese population.

Anyone else wondering why prescription drugs are so expensive? Here is the answer.

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