The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered the removal from sale of all cold medicine produced by Tien Liang Biotech Co (天良生物科技企業) after the firm was found to have doctored the expiration date of its cold medicine, the administration said yesterday.
FDA deputy section chief Wang Shu-fen (王淑芬) said that the biotech company from New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止) was found to have illegally replaced labels on soon-to-expire cold medicine for at least four years.
Wang said FDA and health officials from New Taipei City had visited the company for a “good distribution practice” assessment a day earlier and found the original packaging of the company’s bottled cold medicine — “Nocks pain relief anti-cold solution” (諾克治痛感冒液) — to have been replaced with forged new lot numbers and use-by date.
Photo: Weng Yu-huang, Taipei Times
A company executive admitted that due to the poor sales of its cold medicine, the firm had been altering labeling since 2013, each time extending the expiration date by between two and two-and-a-half year, Wang said.
Health officials sealed more than 160,000 bottles of cold medicine and ordered the company to remove the product from sale.
The case has been turned over to the Taipei Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office.
Photo: courtesy of the Taoyuan Department of Public Health
Manufacturers who violate the law are liable to a prison term of up to 10 years and can be fined up to NT$100 million (US$3.32 million).
The FDA urged the public to stop using the cold medicine immediately.
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