Foreign medical device makers under scrutiny

China's market regulators are investigating foreign medical-equipment makers over suspicion that they may have paid bribes or used illegal strategies to achieve market dominance, according to some people familiar with the matter.

Regulators including the State Administration for Industry and Commerce opened the preliminary investigations last year into the Chinese healthcare units of General Electric Co, Royal Philips NV and Siemens AG, the people said. The probes do not necessarily mean the companies have done anything wrong, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The three companies command more than 80 percent of China's market for large medical equipment such as CT and MRI scanners.