FDA destroys illegal health products
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday destroyed more than 30 tonnes of illegal health-related products, including 20 million pseudoephedrine-based cold pills. The items had a street value of more than Bt221 million.
All the medication was ground up and burned at the Public and Environmental Service Centre located at the Bang Pa-In Industrial Park. The items destroyed included 8 tonnes of drugs worth Bt10 million, 5 tonnes of food products valued at Bt1 million, 5 tonnes of cosmetics worth Bt20 million and 40 kilograms of medical devices worth Bt70,000.
FDA secretary-general Dr Pipat Yingseri said they had also destroyed 238kg of psychotropic drugs, including pills containing pseudoephedrine.
Previously, the watchdog had asked pharmacies nationwide to return all pseudoephedrine-based medication they had in their stocks. It received about 20 million tablets and 11 million cubic centimetres of cough mixture.
“I believe pseudoephedrine-based cold pills can no longer be bought over the counter,” FDA deputy secretary- general Dr Pongphan Wongmanee said. “We will check the pharmacies’ stocks again.”
However, he said, if the Public Health Ministry withdrew its regulation prohibiting pharmacies from selling pseudoephedrine-based cold pills, the FDA will find other measures to control the distribution of this drug. The FDA yesterday examined three manufacturers that have produced more than 3 million cold pills containing pseudoephedrine, and found no abnormalities.
