The Minster of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien on Wednesday asked the Minister of Public Security Tran Dai Quang to launch an investigation on the recently disclosed bribery case committed by Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc in Vietnam.

Accordingly, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday announced that it had “entered into a cease and desist order” against the California-based medical diagnostics and life sciences manufacturing and sales company.

SEC announced that it found Bio-Rad "had agreed to pay $40.7 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest in connection with the company’s sales in Russia, as well as in Thailand and Vietnam."

The bribery case the California-based firm conducted in Vietnam may amount to $2.2 million when it operated in teh Southeast Asain country.

On the same day, the health ministry's chief inspector Dang Van Chinh asked all the local departments of health and hospitals under the ministry’s management to immediately report on the procurement of equipment, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals previously supplied by Bio-Rad.

According to Chinh, the Inspectorate Department of the health ministry will discuss with its counterpart at the Ministry of Transport, which has experience in handling similar cases involving foreign companies.

Bio-Rad has now stopped working in Vietnam, said Chinh, adding that the company previously offered a wide variety of medical devices, chemicals and some kind of proprietary medicinal chemicals to Vietnamese hospitals.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!