Stanford Dad Accused of $6.5 Million Payment in College Scandal Has a New Problem

The Chinese father who allegedly paid $6.5 million to get his daughter into Stanford University has another reason to worry: his pharmaceutical company is under scrutiny by the Shanghai stock exchange regulator over the level of its sales expenses.

Shandong Buchang Pharmaceuticals Co., whose chairman Zhao Tao has been caught up in the U.S. college admissions scandal, said in a statement Monday that it had received questions from the stock exchange over why its sales expenses amounted to a higher-than-average 59% of the company’s 2018 revenue of 13.7 billion yuan ($1.99 billion). The company, which sells herbal medicines and bio-pharmaceuticals, said that the sales expenses were for general marketing and consulting, but did not explain why it was higher than the industry average.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Buchang’s peers like Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co. and Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. have sales expenses to revenue ratios of around 40%.

Paying fees to doctors and hospitals for prescribing products is an oft-reported although legally questionable occurrence in the pharmaceutical industry in China. In 2014, British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc had to pay a half a billion dollar fine after China charged the company with bribery of local health officials.

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