Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, after attending a radio programme today (June 23):
Reporter: Is the Government under greater pressure to impose a complete ban because of the medical sector and the medical schools are against the plan? And also on the contamination of drugs, do you think that there is a need to review the existing mechanism for registering the drugs?
Secretary for Food and Health: On the issue of the regulation of e-cigarettes, I want to reiterate that the Government's stance and the understanding of the harm of these e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn cigarettes are the same as that of the medical professionals. The medical and health professionals felt that we need to further strengthen the initial regulatory framework. We will continue to look at the latest evidence from international and local studies. We want to understand more about the prevalence of the use of these new tobacco products. Also, we want to review the entire situation of practices of other countries. We will continue to look at these factors to carve out our further actions. I want to reiterate that after reviewing all these evidence and factors, we do not rule out if necessary, the possibility that we would further strengthen our regulatory framework.
Reporter: Is there a need to review the registration of drugs?
Secretary for Food and Health: As far as the registration of drugs is concerned, we have a very robust system of the registration of any drugs coming into Hong Kong. The Department of Health's Drug Office has very stringent measures of drug registration. First of all, they have to be registered elsewhere. The Office will also look into the reports provided by the company to see the efficacy and quality of the drugs. I think this incident may not be an issue of the registration of drugs. Of course, the Department of Health is now testing the drug. We will also receive a report from the drug company. We will look into these reports. We appeal to the general public that the drug is now in question, they better not to take the drug even if they have bought it before. Anyway, they will not be able to buy the drug in the market now.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
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