Counterfeit batches of Crestor brand lipid-lowering drugs contained ingredients from Chinese pharmaceutical producers, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday after being subjected to a barrage of questions from a lawmaker.
A recall was issued on Tuesday for all of AstraZeneca’s Crestor tablets following a discovery last week that two batches of the drug prescribed to 570,000 National Health Insurance patients were counterfeits made from atorvastatin, a cheaper drug whose patent had expired.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare did not release any information regarding the quantity, distribution or origin of the fake drugs until yesterday, when Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) grilled Chen on the issue during a legislative session.
Photo: CNA
Following Liu’s questions, Chen said that the fake drugs’ ingredients were mailed from China to Taiwan, but the identity of many individuals involved in their production and distribution remained unknown to authorities.
The ministry is considering sending investigators to China, Chen said, adding that judicial authorities have taken charge of the investigation.
Liu said that the majority of the imported products seized by the Food and Drug Administration at customs offices for being counterfeits or failing to meet safety standards originated in China.
Separately yesterday, Premier Lin Chuan (林全) pledged to comprehensively overhaul the nation’s drug safety standards during a meeting he chaired at the Executive Yuan.
“This incident is a test for our entire medical safety system and especially for the ministry’s agencies responsible for protecting the nation’s drug safety, as it will show whether their work has won the public’s trust,” Lin said. “We must use this opportunity to completely re-evaluate our performance.”
The primary suspect involved in counterfeiting the drug has been apprehended, Lin said, acknowledging the efforts of police, prosecutors and the ministry to hold the suspect accountable.
The government has requested the assistance of the pharmaceutical sector in recalling and replacing the affected products, he added.
The ministry must ensure the complete recovery and destruction of the fake drugs, and it must make information available to avoid an unnecessary panic, Lin said, adding that an inspection of all commonly prescribed and high-value pharmaceuticals would begin immediately.
Lin said the Cabinet would at the earliest opportunity review existing procedures, including those for dealing with fake drugs; tracking the production and distribution of medicines; quality control regulations; hospital inventory inspections; the mechanism for reporting fake drugs; and methods for their disposal.
The government must protect the public’s access to safe medicines that are essential for public health, uphold the nation’s reputation for effective regulation of medical products and restore public confidence in the government, he added.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS