22 Mar 2009
A spokesman for the Department of Health (DH) today (March 22) said the department was investigating a case in which the Hospital Authority (HA) had reported that the volume of two batches of "Water for Injections" supplied to HA did not match with the declaration in its label.
Initial investigations revealed that each bottle of the product should contain 100 ml of water for injection but the actual volume found in the two batches of product ranged between 120 ml to 130 ml.
The spokesman said the two batches concerned (with batch number 38L70 and 38L71C) were produced by the Indonesia subsidiary of a Japanese company called Otsuka. The products in question, with a total amount of 111,160 bottles, were imported by a licensed drug wholesaler "Luen Cheong Hong Ltd" in two confinements in December 2008 and January 2009.
A total of 92,820 bottles were supplied to the HA while the remaining are still kept by the wholesaler. DH inspected the office of the wholesaler today and took away samples of the products for laboratory analysis.
The wholesaler has initiated a recall of the product from the HA.
The DH's investigation is on going.