Press Releases

Contaminated drug case investigation continues

The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, said today (March 9) that he had asked the Department of Health to find out whether other drugs produced by Europharm were contaminated by fungus and announce the results and follow-up measures as early as possible.

"The results can serve as references to private doctors and hospitals for taking appropriate measures correspondingly," he said.

"The Department of Health has initially identified the cause leading to fungal contamination of allopurinol manufactured by Europharm and taken a series of measures, including recalling all Purinol tablets produced by the company and requesting the company to fully assist in investigations.

"The Hospital Authority has stopped the use of drugs produced by the company on high-risk patients. The authority is also formulating contingency measures to prepare for possible need to replace drugs for patients depending on the department's impending drug test results.

"I have also instructed the Department of Health to comprehensively review and improve the monitoring mechanism of drug manufacturing and take reference of overseas experience to prevent recurrence of similar incidents," Dr Chow said.


Ends/Monday, March 9, 2009
Issued at HKT 18:53

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