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LCQ20: Spurious pharmaceutical products
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    Following is a question by the Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (October 17):

Question:

     It has been reported that some drug stores have been deceptively selling fake proprietary Chinese medicine or products resembling or packaged like the genuine ones.  Moreover, some of the advertisements of proprietary Chinese medicine and health products contain untruthful claims to mislead patients and consumers. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether it has estimated the current number of blackspots in Hong Kong where fake western pharmaceutical products, fake proprietary Chinese medicine or pharmaceutical products resembling or packaged like the genuine ones are allegedly sold, as well as the market share of such products; if it has, of the results;

(b) of the number of complaints received by the Government in the past three years about the sale of fake western pharmaceutical products or fake proprietary Chinese medicine, together with a list of the five most often found categories of fake proprietary Chinese medicine;

(c) of the existing measures to regulate the packaging, sale, sales outlets and sales practices of western pharmaceutical products and proprietary Chinese medicine and to combat the sale of fake western pharmaceutical products, fake proprietary Chinese medicine and spurious products; whether it has considered implementing a registration system for retail outlets of pharmaceutical products so as to strengthen its regulation efforts; and

(d) whether it has investigated the situation of advertisements of proprietary Chinese medicine and health food products in the market containing misleading claims; and whether it will study and amend the Undesirable Medical Advertisements Ordinance (Cap. 231) in order to effectively regulate the claims made in the advertisements of proprietary Chinese medicine and health products to ensure that patients will not be misled by such information and delay receiving appropriate treatments or cease western medical treatments on their own initiative, so as to safeguard public health; if it has conducted the investigation and will study the legislation, of the progress of such efforts; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) The Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) is very concerned about the problem of spurious pharmaceutical products and will take resolute enforcement actions against them in the interests of public health.  Most of the spurious pharmaceutical product cases detected by the C&ED involved non-compliances by individual drug retailers.  No blackspots for the sale of spurious pharmaceutical products have been identified.

(b) The numbers of complaints received by the C&ED in the past three years about spurious western pharmaceutical products or spurious proprietary Chinese medicines are set out in Annex 1.

     It is hard to define the most often found categories of fake proprietary Chinese medicines. Among the spurious proprietary Chinese medicines recently seized by the C&ED, the more common ones are cough suppressant pill, stomach pain killer, anti-diarrhoeal and anti-vomiting pill, external medicated oil, pain-relieving ointment, etc.

(c) For protection of public health, the packaging, sale, sales outlets and sales practices of western pharmaceutical products are subject to the regulation of the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance and its subsidiary legislation. Unless otherwise specified, pharmaceutical products have to be labelled, and those pharmaceutical products not registered with the Pharmacy and Poisons Board shall not be put on sale. At present, pharmacies and medicine companies which are allowed to sell poisons included in Part I or Part II of the Poisons List of the Ordinance have to be registered under the Ordinance. Part I poisons shall only be sold in pharmacies in the presence of a registered pharmacist, whereas Part II poisons shall only be sold in pharmacies and medicine companies. Any violation of the above requirements is liable on conviction to a maximum penalty of a fine of $100,000 and to imprisonment for 24 months.  Convicted drug traders may also be subject to disciplinary inquiries by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, which may even lead to the revocation of their licences.

     Besides, upon the full implementation of the provisions governing the registration of proprietary Chinese medicines under the Chinese Medicine Ordinance, the sale, import and possession of unregistered proprietary Chinese medicines shall not be allowed in Hong Kong.  A label shall be attached to the package of registered proprietary Chinese medicines to state clearly, among other things, the name of the medicine, its main active ingredients, the place of manufacture, the registration number on the certificate of registration and the name of the holder of the certificate.  In addition, the Practising Guidelines for Wholesalers of Proprietary Chinese Medicines promulgated by the Chinese Medicines Board of the Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong prohibits wholesalers from engaging in the dealing of proprietary Chinese medicines suspected to be counterfeit products.  The Chinese Medicines Board may take disciplinary actions against non-complying Chinese medicines traders, including issuing warnings to them, varying the conditions or restrictions of their licences, and revoking or cancelling their licences.

     To combat fake drugs, the Trade Descriptions Ordinance provides that any person who imports, exports, sells or manufactures goods to which a forged trademark is applied commits an offence. The maximum penalty is a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for five years upon conviction on indictment, or a fine of $100,000 and imprisonment for two years on summary conviction. Activities involving allusion to a particular trademark constitute a civil infringement. Upon receipt of complaints, the C&ED will carry out investigations immediately and contact the trademark owner to verify the authenticity of the brand proprietary medicines in question. If there is sufficient evidence to show that an offence under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance has been committed, the C&ED will take prompt enforcement actions against those drug stores selling spurious pharmaceutical products.

     The numbers of enforcement actions taken by the C&ED against spurious western pharmaceutical products and proprietary Chinese medicines in recent years are set out in Annex 2.

     The C&ED has been in close collaboration with the Department of Health (DH) and trade mark proprietors in exchange of intelligence and market surveillance. In addition, C&ED and DH carry out large-scale joint operations from time to time to combat the sale of spurious pharmaceutical products. Since 2005, the two Departments have carried out seven joint operations and detected 28 spurious pharmaceutical product cases. The C&ED has also enhanced its intelligence work, and introduced reward schemes with trademark proprietors to encourage the public to report activities involving spurious and fake pharmaceutical products, with a view to combating such crimes more effectively.

(d) As to the problem of misleading claims in product advertisements, various ordinances and codes of practice regulate different aspects of advertisements or claims. The Undesirable Medical Advertisements Ordinance prohibits the advertisement of medicines, surgical appliances or treatments that claim to be able to prevent or treat certain diseases or conditions specified in Schedules 1 and 2 to the Ordinance. The Ordinance aims to protect the public from being induced by such advertisements to seek improper self-medication or treatment which may pose health or safety hazards to them as a result of delayed treatment. We will base our decisions on risk assessments when determining which diseases or conditions should be included in the Schedules to the Ordinance. When considering the need for amending the law, we will endeavour to safeguard public health without imposing unnecessary constraints on the trade.

Ends/Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Issued at HKT 13:39

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