Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/20
By: Chang Ming-hsuan and Elizabeth Hsu

Image taken from www.genovate-bio.com

Taipei, Nov. 20 (CNA) Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered the recall of high blood pressure medication produced by Hsinchu County-based Genovate Biotechnology Co. after the drug was found to contain a carcinogenic substance.

The recall was not made public until Tuesday, after 22 batches of “Prevan Film-Coated Tables 80mg” and “Prevan Film-Coated Tables 160 mg” from Genovate Biotech’s production line were found to have been made with a raw material imported from India tainted by the carcinogenic chemical substance N-Nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA).

The company began recalling the contaminated medication Saturday, the same day the FDA ordered all tainted tablets be taken off shelves at medical institutes and pharmacies around the country, the agency said in a statement released on Tuesday.

FDA division chief Hung Kuo-teng (洪國登) told CNA via telephone that a total of 2.28 million tables — labeled with the expiration dates July 30, 2022 and Nov. 4, 2019, respectively — will be removed by Dec. 19.    [FULL  STORY]