SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Baidu.com Inc shares tumbled Monday after a state-run China Central Television broadcast suggested over the weekend the Chinese Internet search company sold links to unlicensed medical sites with unproven claims for their products.
Baidu, unlike Google Inc and Yahoo Inc, allows companies to pay so their sites appear higher in search results.
The report comes at a time of heightened sensitivity in China over disreputable medical companies. The country has been wracked by scandals related to contaminated food and drugs, and analysts said the company might see fewer searches as a result.
Shares of Baidu were recently trading down 23 percent at $138.32.
CCTV said the payments from the medical companies resulted in these sites ranking ahead of legitimate sites in search rankings.
Baidu, China's top Internet search engine, did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.

Merrill Lynch analyst Eddie Leung wrote to clients that he expects "lower monetization on the pharmaceutical sector and conservatively some extra impact on traffic and advertiser growth."
He lowered his 2009 revenue estimate by 17 percent and his earnings-per-share estimate by 22 percent.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster sees a 1 percent to 3 percent impact to 2009 revenue as the company makes changes to its sales practices.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway; Editing by Derek Caney) Keywords: BAIDU/SHARES (gabriel.madway@thomsonreuters.com; +1 415 677 2536)

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