The Department of Health (DH) mounted a joint-operation with Hong Kong Customs today (December 18) to raid the premises of GCM Pharmaceutical Company (GCM), a licensed wholesaler of Chinese herbal medicines at 43 Hung To Road, Kwun Tong, Kowloon as the company was suspected of supplying Chinese medicine granules, namely Boon Cho (transliteration), for prescription with false claim on their production standard.
Acting on the intelligence, DH carried out the investigation which revealed that the related Chinese medicine granule for prescription products bored the marking "This product is produced under G.M.P. standard". However, the concerned Mainland manufacturer has not been accredited for the Good Manufacturing Practice (G.M.P.) on Chinese medicine granules for prescription. All the said products were only supplied to Chinese medicine practitioners for dispensing according to prescription and were imported by GCM for solely distribution to a few local Chinese medicine practitioners (CMP).
In the operation, Customs officers seized about 10,000 bottles of Chinese medicine granules for prescription with suspected false claim on production standard and arrested a 49-year-old man. Investigation is ongoing.
So far, no adverse report related to the use of the above products has been received by the DH. The DH is notifying the affected CMPs to alert them about the incident and stop using the above Chinese medicine granules for prescription.
Under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, any person who supplies goods with a false trade description in the course of trade or business, or is in possession of any goods for sale with a false trade description, commits an offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for five years.
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