Taipei customs officials stopped 60,000 weight loss pills containing the banned substance sibutramine from entering Taiwan from January to last month, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.
Taipei customs, which is responsible for the clearance of air cargo and air express consignments in northern Taiwan, said that it had stopped 16 shipments of the illegal medication, 13 from Vietnam and three from Thailand.
It estimated that each pill has a market value of NT$8 in Taiwan due to the relatively low purity of sibutramine at 1 to 3 percent, giving the shipments a combined value of NT$480,000 (US$15,241).
Photo courtesy of Taipei Customs
As the illegal substance was not featured on the ingredients list, purchasers may have been unaware that the pills were illegal, the agency said.
Sibutramine, which the Cabinet declared a category 4 narcotic in September 2021, can cause side effects such as high blood pressure, palpitations, cardiac arrest and even death, agency said.
Quoting Article 4 of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), Taipei Customs said that those who manufacture, transport or sell category 4 narcotics are subject to a fixed-term imprisonment from five to 12 years, and may also be fined up to NT$5 million.
Many countries, including the US, China and EU nations, have already banned the substance for public health reasons.
However, some drug makers are still using it in the production of weight loss pills to lower the cost of manufacturing, the agency said.
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