Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ6: Alluded proprietary Chinese medicines and health products
Following is a question by the Hon Chan Han-pan and a reply by the Secretary for
Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (March 29):
Question:
According to some earlier media reports, some pharmacies sell proprietary
Chinese medicines (pCms) alluding to those of well-known brands, with their
names and packaging bearing strong resemblance to the latter. As some of these
pCms are not attached with labels or package inserts carrying medicinal claims,
they are not regulated under any legislation but regarded as health food
products only. Some members of the public are worried that the consumption of
such pCms alluding to well-known brands, which have unknown composition and
quality, is detrimental to health. In this connection, will the Government
inform this Council:
(1) whether the authorities received any complaint about pCms alluding to
well-known brands in the past five years; if so, of the number and details of
such complaints, as well as how they were followed up;
(2) given that some manufacturers add non-Chinese medicine ingredients to health
food products adopting pCm formulae to circumvent regulation and use product
names that are similar to Chinese medicines to mislead the public, and that such
food products contain Chinese medicines but are not attached with usage
instructions, what measures the authorities have in place to ensure that the
consumption safety, quality, composition and dosage of such health food products
meet the relevant safety standards and to prevent consumers from unknowingly
purchasing such products; and
(3) whether it will introduce a registration system for health food products to
protect the health and rights of consumers; if it will not, of the reasons for
that?
Reply:
President,
Before 2014, the Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) did not keep separate
figures for the numbers of complaints and successfully prosecuted cases related
to alluded drugs (including proprietary Chinese medicines (pCms)). For the past
three years, the numbers of complaints received by the C&ED involving sale of
alluded drugs (including pCms) and successfully prosecuted cases are at Annex.
From 2014 to 2016, there were 117, 86 and 43 complaint cases respectively. The
numbers of successfully prosecuted cases were eight, ten and eight respectively.
The maximum penalty ranged from a fine of $12,000 to $30,000 and imprisonment
from two months to four months.
There is no international standard on the definition of and regulation for
"health products". The Government has imposed specific control by adopting a
multi-pronged approach to regulate through a series of legislation based on the
nature, composition, content of claims made, method of usage, dosage and packing
specification, etc. of individual products. To protect public health, we have
also adopted various targeted measures to monitor the products in the market
with a view to ensuring their safety and that their functional claims and
composition are true. The related measures include regulating products that fall
within the definition of pharmaceutical product, pCm or food under the Pharmacy
and Poisons Ordinance (Cap. 138), the Chinese Medicine Ordinance (Cap. 549), the
Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap. 132) respectively. To
protect the public from being induced by advertisements or health claims and
thereby seeking improper self-medication that may result in delay in seeking
medical treatment, the Government also regulates the labels and advertisement of
products through the Undesirable Medical Advertisements Ordinance (Cap. 231) and
the Trade Descriptions Ordinance (Cap. 362). In addition, the claims of health
products are subject to regulation by relevant provisions or codes under the
Broadcasting Ordinance (Cap. 562) and the Broadcasting (Miscellaneous
Provisions) Ordinance (Cap. 391).
Since pCms are medicines formulated on the basis of traditional Chinese
medicines, some western countries where Chinese are not the majority, such as
the United Kingdom and the United States, generally do not have specific
regulatory measures targeted for Chinese medicines. On the other hand, for
places where Chinese are the majority, such as Singapore and Taiwan, the
relevant statutory regulation for Chinese medicines require that pCms must
consist solely of Chinese medicine materials. In the Mainland, pCms generally
also consist solely of Chinese medicine materials. Since the Mainland implements
integrated practice of Chinese medicine and Western medicine, a small number of
pCms are allowed to contain Western medicines but the prescription of these pCms
should still comply with the principles of traditional Chinese medicine. In sum,
the relevant regulations are basically same with the principles of the Chinese
Medicine Ordinance for the regulation of pCms.
The Government will continue to closely monitor the regulatory measures of other
regions and the situation in the local market, and conduct risk assessment.
Having balanced public safety and the trade’s concerns, the Government will
review the relevant legislation and regulatory arrangement in due course, which
includes considering the need to formulate specific legislation to impose more
targeted control on different products. Before formulating more targeted
regulation, the Government will continue to enforce prevailing relevant
legislation with a view to regulating products sold in the market which contain
non-Chinese medicine ingredients.
Ends/Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Issued at HKT 15:00
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LCQ6 Annex