Press Releases
SFH on drug incidents
Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session at
the Legislative Council Building today (March 18):
Reporter: (about the recent drug incidents)
Secretary for Food and Health: I had a meeting with the Department of Health
and the Hospital Authority yesterday. We have instructed the two
organisations to address certain issues. For the Department of Health, I
would like them to review the GMP criteria and conditions, including the
governance and internal audit system of individual production and factories.
Secondly is to update the requirement for our inspection and the checklist
while our inspectors are actually at the factories. Thirdly, we would also
like them to have a look at the penalty system of the GMP, whether there is
a need to review it. For the Hospital Authority, we feel that they need to
strengthen the pre-procurement procedure regarding sourcing of drugs and
ensure that the drug that is being delivered is safe and of good quality.
This includes a small trial of usage by some designated units and clinicians
to make sure we do not actually buy the drugs and that we are quite sure
about the quality.
Reporter: (about the review)
Secretary for Food and Health: At the moment, the Department of Health will
review the GMP requirements and the additional work they need to do. I think
by the end of this month, they will have a more systematic proposal for us
and for the public. Regarding the resources required, it depends on what
they are recommending. I think we can certainly do some internal deployment
for the moment, but eventually we have to plan perhaps some additional
staffing as well. But that depends on what they are going to recommend.
Reporter: (about regulation)
Secretary for Food and Health: I think the current Pharmacy and Poisons
Ordinance should be able to cover most of the requirements internationally.
But whether Hong Kong would require certain adjustment or review of certain
areas of the regulation, it depends on the recommendation of the Director of
Health.
Reporter: How can people feel safe about this?
Secretary for Food and Health: I think people have to understand that GMP
itself is a standard imposed by the World Health Organisation for most of
the developed countries. And we are one of them. The flaw lies in some of
the lapse of the governance of certain factories. Perhaps we also have to
strengthen our inspection and some of our testing of samples and drugs as
well. And certainly we need to strengthen the governance and internal audit
of those factories and drug firms so that they can detect any abnormality or
irregularity early and correct them internally. I think the Department of
Health will also strengthen some of the inspections, particularly in risk
assessment areas on certain factories or types of drugs, they have to be
more stringent in terms of regulation and approval.
Reporter: (about drug safety)�}
Secretary for Food and Health: I think the existing system still has its
merit. I can assure the public that most of the drugs in Hong Kong,
particularly those that the Hospital Authority is providing to the public
patients, are safe. Of course with what happened in the last few weeks, I
think we have to be more cautious about getting new drugs and looking after
patients who have high risk of immunity and perhaps high risk of other
complications. This is also a lesson learned by all sectors including the
health regulators, the health carers as well as the people in the frontline.
Because this incident shows that if we are more sensitive about side effects
and also complications, we can actually detect any irregularity early and be
able to stop it.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Issued at HKT 18:31
NNNN