11 Mar 2009
In response to media enquiries on the recall of some pharmaceutical products by Marching Pharmaceutical Ltd, a local drug manufacturer, a spokesman for the Department of Health (DH) said today (March 11) that DH was investigating a complaint against the company regarding the expiry dates of some of its products.
Initial investigations by DH on February 26 revealed that the label expiry dates of a total of 216 types of pharmaceutical products were not substantiated by laboratory data.
However, the company already began to recall the products which were still on sale in the market before the investigation was completed.
It also applied for de-registration of 120 of the 216 products for commercial reasons. The application is still under process.
The spokesman said every application for de-registration of pharmaceutical product would be scrutinized followed by a recall from the applicant, as the possession or sale of any un-registered drug is an offence.
He said all recalled products must be reprocessed to ensure their safety, efficacy and quality before putting on sale in the market again.
The products being recalled are low-risk drugs. Most of which are non-prescription products including vitamins, minerals, cough and cold preparations and the remaining are prescription topical preparations such as skin creams.
DH will closely monitor the actions taken in every recall exercise to ensure that all the necessary steps were effectively and efficiently adhered to.