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The Department of Health (DH) today (May 7) urged members of the public not to buy or take three batches of a Chinese medicine product called Royal Medic No.1 Chinese Caterpillar Fungus (御药堂西藏头期野生纯冬虫夏草) as the microbial content were found to have exceeded the maximum permitted limit.
A DH spokesman said the wholesaler, Royal Medic (Holdings) Ltd. (御药堂(控股)有限公司), was instructed to recall the product from market and to surrender them to DH. The concerned lot numbers are RM 630021, RM 630023 and RM 6300026.
"Under pCm registration system in Hong Kong, a product must fulfill, among other things, requirement for microbial limits. The microbial count is an indicator of hygiene standard.
"The Department has not received any report of adverse drug reactions linked to the product so far," he added.
Members of the public who have purchased the concerned batch of the product are advised to stop using it, dispose of or surrender it to the Pharmaceutical Service of DH at 3/F, Public Health Laboratory Centre, 382 Nam Cheong Street, Kowloon during office hours.
The DH investigation came after the receipt of a report regarding a number of Chinese medicine products of Caterpillar Fungus (冬虫夏草) in the market.
DH took samples of the related products from the market for testing and found that the bacterial count of the Royal Medic No.1 Chinese Caterpillar Fungus exceeds the permitted limit.
Members of the public can call the wholesaler's hotline at 2877 8866 for matters related to recall of the product.
DH has also set up a telephone enquiry service at 2319 5119 for members of the public during office hours.
Ends/Monday, May 7, 2007
Issued at HKT 19:45
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