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Old 04-28-2003, 07:13 AM   #1
LennonCook
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Join Date: November 10, 2001
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Quote:
Medical recall prompts vitamin warning


Australians have been warned against taking herbal, vitamin or nutritional supplements following the biggest recall of medical products in the country's history.

The national medicines watchdog, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), suspended the licence of Pan Pharmaceuticals for six months and ordered the immediate withdrawal of 219 of its products following a series of grave safety and quality breaches.

Pan is Australia's largest contract manufacturer of herbal, vitamin and nutritional supplements.

It also makes some over-the-counter medicines including paracetamol, codeine, antihistamines and pseudoephedrine.

Pan represents 70 per cent of the Australian complementary medicine market and exports to dozens of countries.




The number of products recalled could blow out to several thousand in coming days.

TGA principal medical adviser Dr John McEwen said other products manufactured by Pan but sold under different brand names would be added to the list as they were discovered.

Dr McEwen said Pan lost its license following evidence of substitution of ingredients, manipulation of test results and substandard manufacturing processes.

He cited five instances where Pan released products containing raw materials that had not been tested for their safety and four cases where laboratory test results were manipulated to meet specifications.

There were also four recent examples of test results of an export vitamin product being fabricated.

Dr McEwen also said on several occasions beef cartilage had been substituted for shark cartilage in a shark cartilage preparation.

"Our great worry is that a product may not be true to label," he said.

"It may have a herb in it that has not been appropriately tested and may have a contaminant in it that could cause a serious illness ... or potentially fatal allergic reaction."

Pan first came to the attention of the TGA over its travel sickness tablet Travacalm, which was recalled in January, Parliamentary health secretary Trish Worth said.

Faulty batches of the tablets resulted in at least 87 adverse reactions and 19 hospitalisations.

In some cases people attempted to jump out of planes or off boats because they were experiencing severe hallucinations, Ms Worth said.

The Travacalm incident led to further investigations which found the problems highlighted with the Travacalm tablets were "endemic" at Pan, Ms Worth said.

"There were substitutions, there was manipulation of data and it was a very sorry tale indeed," she said.

"There will be further investigations ... and it's possible that criminal charges will be laid."

Regulatory authorities in other countries were being informed of the development, Dr McEwen said.

He said the TGA would publish a list of recalled products in newspaper advertisements and on its websites over the next few days.

Until then, consumers should avoid taking herbal and vitamin preparations, Dr McEwen said.

Source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/Health/story_48067.asp
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Old 04-28-2003, 07:24 AM   #2
wellard
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Join Date: November 1, 2002
Location: Australia ..... G\'day!
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Thanks for the news, as a user of these types of products I will follow this carefully.

This may also explain why some people freak out on planes. Working at an airport I know this happens a lot.
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Old 04-28-2003, 08:28 AM   #3
Kakero
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Join Date: March 24, 2002
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interesting, since I don't live in Australia. but still, a little precaution wouldn't hurt either.
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Old 04-28-2003, 08:54 AM   #4
Earthdog
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Join Date: May 1, 2001
Location: melbourne victoria australia
Age: 58
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WOW, thanks for that. I hadnt a clue. Not that i use the stuff myself, but my wife uses Paracetomal (however ya spell it).

Much appreciated.
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Old 04-29-2003, 08:47 AM   #5
Sever
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Join Date: October 31, 2002
Location: Western Australia
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Spun out. I heard about this circus act today on the radio. But it seems that the first law suit has already been filed. A father is trying to sue over his daughter's apparent overdose of Travelcalm. I'm not sure whether proceedings were already underway before the announcement was made (if not, then the sharks work f'n quick down here!).

An interesting point, which may or may not prove important to the case, is that Travalcalm and other over-the-counter car sickness medications have been used as poor man's LSD for years...
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Old 04-29-2003, 12:47 PM   #6
Yorick
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Quote:
Originally posted by Earthdog:
WOW, thanks for that. I hadnt a clue. Not that i use the stuff myself, but my wife uses Paracetomal (however ya spell it).

Much appreciated.
I spell it "I" "T"
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