Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ11: Regulation of proprietary Chinese medicines

Following is a question by the Hon Li Fung-ying and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (May 23):

Question:

It has been reported that at present, as estimated by members of the trade, half of the drug stores sell products of proprietary Chinese medicine which are spurious or allude to particular trade marks, and the number of complaints about proprietary Chinese medicine received by the Consumer Council in the first three months of this year is already equivalent to 76% of the figure for the whole of last year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the number of inspections and test purchases conducted to tackle the aforesaid problem by the government departments concerned over the past three years;

(b) of the number of prosecutions instituted by the relevant authorities over the past three years, together with a breakdown by the offences involved, and among such prosecutions, the number of convicted cases and the penalties imposed by the court on the convicted persons; and

(c) whether new measures will be put in place to curb the aforesaid problem to safeguard public health; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

Madam President,

In 2006, the Consumer Council received 38 complaints about proprietary Chinese medicines, of which 5 were about suspected spurious products. The products concerned were subsequently confirmed not spurious. As at March 31, 2007, the Consumer Council received 29 complaints about proprietary Chinese medicines, of which 11 were about suspected spurious products. All these 11 complaints were lodged through the same complaint letter. The complainants concerned alleged that some medicine companies sold spurious proprietary Chinese medicines, but did not provide details of the spurious products. The Consumer Council has already contacted the complainants, but has yet to obtain the relevant information.

(a) The Trade Descriptions Ordinance provides that any person who imports, exports, sells or produces goods to which a forged trade mark is applied commits an offence. The maximum penalty is a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for five years upon conviction on indictment, and a fine of $100,000 and imprisonment for two years on summary conviction. Activities involving allusion to a particular trade mark constitute a civil infringement.

The Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) is responsible for taking criminal enforcement action against activities involving counterfeit goods under the above Ordinance. Similar to its investigation into other general trademark counterfeiting cases, the C&ED mainly acts on complaints and intelligence and takes enforcement action against suspicious activities involving counterfeit proprietary Chinese medicines. Upon receipt of a complaint, the C&ED will carry out an investigation immediately and contact the trademark owner to verify the authenticity of the brand proprietary Chinese medicine in question. As the C&ED's enforcement actions are not taken in the form of regular shop inspection, we are unable to furnish the figure mentioned in the question.

(b) Over the past three years, the numbers of enforcement actions taken by the C&ED in respect of forged trade marks of proprietary Chinese medicines are shown in Table 1.

Over the past three years, the penalties imposed by the court on persons convicted of offences related to forged trade marks of proprietary Chinese medicines are shown in Table 2.

According to records, the penalties imposed by the court in most of the cases are usually a fine ranging from $1,000 to $5,000.

(c) On top of the C&ED's actions to fight against spurious proprietary Chinese medicines under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, the Department of Health (DH) also, for protection of public health, collects samples of proprietary Chinese medicines in the market regularly to check if there are any excessive levels of heavy metals and adulteration with Western drug ingredients. In addition, the DH requests the proprietary Chinese medicine importers to submit samples for testing upon their application for import licences. The DH will also act on referrals from the Hospital Authority or other information from complaints and test the proprietary Chinese medicines with suspected problems. In cases where proprietary Chinese medicines with safety problems are found in the market, the DH will request the wholesalers and retailers to recall the products.

We also strive to regulate proprietary Chinese medicines at source. The Chinese Medicines Board of the Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong has completed processing applications for the transitional wholesaler licence in proprietary Chinese medicines. We are planning to submit a Commencement Notice of the relevant provisions of the Chinese Medicine Ordinance to the Legislative Council later this year. When the provisions concerned come into force, parties without a licence will not be allowed to deal with the wholesale of proprietary Chinese medicines. In addition, DH will accept applications for import licence of proprietary Chinese medicines from licenced wholesalers only. According to the requirements set out in the Practising Guidelines for Wholesalers of Proprietary Chinese Medicines promulgated by the Chinese Medicines Board, wholesale dealers in proprietary Chinese medicines should not deal in proprietary Chinese medicines which are suspected to be spurious. The Chinese Medicines Board may consider taking disciplinary actions against Chinese medicines traders in breach of the requirements, including issuance of warnings to the wholesale dealers, variation of the conditions or restrictions subject to which a licence was issued to them, as well as suspension or revocation of the licence.



Ends/Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Issued at HKT 14:28

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Tables on LCQ11