KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 — The Pharmaceutical Enforcement division of the Health Ministry seized more than RM5.8 million worth of unregistered products in raids conducted at 666 premises since 2019 until this month.
The ministry’s Senior Director of Pharmaceutical Services, Norhaliza A Halim said raids were also carried at 187 premises selling vitamin C injections during the period, which resulted in the seizure of RM278,202 worth of products.
She said ongoing inspections and raids, especially in hot spot locations, were conducted to curb the sale of unregistered health products, including strong drugs and vitamin C injections.
“Since 2019 until November 2021, the Pharmaceutical Enforcement Division of MOH had received a total of 362 public complaints on strong drugs and vitamin C injections,” she said in a statement today.
She described as inaccurate reports published by a newspaper recently on allegations of widespread sale of health products and medicines in the market.
“MOH, through the Pharmacy Enforcement Division, always conducts monitoring and enforcement to ensure health products and medicines marketed in Malaysia are registered with the Drug Control Authority (PBKD) before they sold to the public,” she said.
Norhaliza said monitoring of unregistered drugs, including strong drugs and vitamin C injections sold online, was being intensified and there were advertisements, as well as sales of products on e-commerce platforms having ordered to be taken down.
“A total of 19,862 advertisement products have been notified to be taken down since last year until this month, while 1,665 links on social media and overseas e-commerce platforms related to strong drugs and vitamin C injections were forwarded to platform administrators for the content to be removed.
“A total of 257 websites have been forwarded to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for sanctions,” she added.
She said individuals found guilty of selling unregistered drugs could be fined a maximum of RM25,000 or jailed for up to three years for the first offense and fined not more than RM50,000 or jailed not more than five years for subsequent offences.
For companies that commit a similar offence, they can be fined up to RM50,000 for the first offence and a fine of up to RM100,000 for the following offences under Regulation 7 (1) (a) of the Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulations 1984. — Bernama
