Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ20: Spurious pharmaceutical products
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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