Urgent drug recall on major U.S. name brand medicines

The Drug Administration of Vietnam has just announced the urgent recall of liquid pharmaceuticals for children made in the USA including Tylenol®, Motrin®, Zyrtec® and Benadryl®.

According to the request from the Drug Administration of Vietnam, Healthcare Departments of provinces and cities are supposed to inform drug enterprises and hospitals not to use these items and to recall them immediately.

Nguyen Viet Hung, Vice Director of the Drug Administration of Vietnam said that these USA brand names have not been registered to apply in Vietnam.

However, these same brand names produced in other countries such as Thailand, South Korea, Switzerland, and Italy were registered for use in Vietnam.

These brand names were recalled in the USA and Canada because they may not meet required quality standards. Some of the recalled products may contain a higher concentration of active ingredients than they are supposed to while others may contain inactive ingredients that do not meet testing requirements or may even contain tiny particles.

Meanwhile, the Drug Administration of Vietnam also requested that the Ho Chi Minh City Drug Test Institute check the quality of these brands which were sold in Vietnam.

After receiving testing results, the Drug Administration of Vietnam will determine their next step.

In addition, the Drug Administration of Vietnam also asked representative offices of these brand names in Vietnam to provide necessary information on manufacturing processes, quality of ingredients and the origins of these brand names in the market.

All reports on imports in Vietnam and quality of these medicines must be sent to the Drug Administration of Vietnam on May 5, 2010.

Tags: Vietnam medicine prices, Vietnam pharmaceuticals