Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-12
By: CNA

A total of 13 pharmaceutical companies in Taiwan have been given a recall order and are

Stomach medicines using food-grade ingredients. (Photo/Hsinchu City Government)

facing fines for using food-grade instead of pharmaceutical-grade ingredients in their stomach medicines, the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Saturday.

In an inspection of 27 pharmaceutical firms over the past three days, it was found that 13 of them could not prove that the magnesium carbonate or calcium carbonate used in a total of 23 products were certified pharmaceutical ingredients, the FDA said.

When magnesium carbonate and calcium carbonate are used as the major ingredients in pharmaceutical products, those two compounds must be of pharmaceutical grade, which requires a certificate from their suppliers, the FDA explained.