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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
In response to the announcement by the Department of Health today (April 14) on the resumption of manufacturing activities of Europharm, a spokesman for the Hospital Authority (HA) issued the following statement:
To enhance the quality control of pharmaceutical products purchased by and used in HA, the Authority has recently identified seven key improvement initiatives for development and implementation over the coming months. HA is in discussion with the industries on the feasibility, roadmaps and timelines on the implementation of the initiatives.
Currently, Europharm has 13 supply contracts with HA. HA has stopped drawing these contracts since the allopurinol incident and the suspension of the manufacturing activities of Europharm.
Europharm will be asked to provide HA with details of its upcoming improvement measures. HA will then evaluate the position of its existing contracts with Europharm taking into consideration of the above, in particular our previous concern on the quality of drugs supplied to HA have all been satisfactorily addressed and all drugs supplied to HA in future will be able to meet the enhanced requirements which will be put in place in phases.
At the same time, HA is seeking legal advice with regard to the supply of allopurinol by Europharm and will further pursue on the liability issues that may have arisen.
Ends/Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Issued at HKT 20:54
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