The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday promised to hold a meeting next month to discuss vitamin prices after the Consumers’ Foundation revealed that the cost of vitamins in Taiwan was almost four times higher than in the US.
The foundation said the prices for vitamins in Taiwan could be nearly four times more expensive than in the US because vitamins are categorized as “medicine” according to a ruling by the Taiwanese court, while in the US and other Western countries, such dietary supplements are considered “food.”
“It is inexcusable that the DOH is going against the world trend by listing vitamins as medicine instead of food. By doing so, it would only serve to benefit the importers,” said foundation secretary-general Yu Kai-hsiung (游開雄) who urged the health agency to immediately amend the regulation.
Yu said that several people have been indicted for selling vitamins that were imported from other countries illegally to take advantage of the gap.
He pointed out that in the US, a well-known brand of vitamin is priced at US$17.69 (NT$537) for a 270-tablet bottle, an average of NT$1.98 per tablet.
However, the same brand of vitamin sold in Taiwan costs NT$789 for 100 tablets, an average of NT$7.89 per tablet.
Yu argued that if the court wants to classify vitamins as medicine, then the DOH must explain the efficacy of the vitamins.
However, since the department is not able to do so, vitamins have no business being in the medicine category and thus the prices must come down.
DOH Deputy-Director Wang Hsiu-hung (王秀紅) pledged that the department would hold a meeting on the issue within the next 10 days and enact a new policy within a month.
The foundation, however, stressed that consumers should not take more vitamins than the daily recommended dosage because it can be harmful to the body.
Moreover, an overdose of vitamins might trigger a toxic reaction, and the accumulation of vitamin residues could also cause health problems such as urinary tract infections.
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