Prescription drugs from public hospitals being widely resold on Internet

The net was circulated a 38-week pregnant Hong Kong woman, through the online shopping platform HKTVmall who bought a bottle of Lactulose that can only be sold in registered pharmacies, the receipt of more found that the product was labeled with public hospital patients, suspected seller resale of second-hand drugs in public hospitals.

Hong Kong Wen Wei Po reporter yesterday (Aug. 13) in a number of large online second-hand trading platform search, it is easy to find all kinds of drugs on sale online, and some people are even selling anti-blood pressure medication belonging to prescription drugs, there is no box packaging, and similar to the packaging of public hospitals.

The reporter asked the seller the source of the drugs, but the other party did not respond. The president of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Hong Kong, So Yiu-wah, pointed out that the sale of drugs, resale of drugs, must have the relevant license, violation of the maximum fine of HK$ 100,000 and imprisonment for two years.

The Government yesterday (August 13) expressed grave concern over the suspected resale of public hospital patients' medicines on an online platform and will deal with the incident seriously. The Government reiterated that the Department of Health (DH) has an established mechanism to monitor the sale of health and pharmaceutical products in the Hong Kong market, including those through the Internet. The DH is liaising with the Hospital Authority to seriously investigate into the alleged case and shall take prompt enforcement action as appropriate.

According to the preliminary understanding, the incident involved a pharmaceutical product, Lactulose. It does not contain any substance listed in the Poisons List of the Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations (Cap. 138A) and is a type of "non-poison" medicine which does not require a prescription nor under the supervision of a pharmacist for sale.

According to the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance (Cap. 138) (the Ordinance), any products falling within the definition of "pharmaceutical products" must satisfy the criteria of safety, efficacy and quality, and must be registered with the Pharmacy and Poisons Board of Hong Kong before they can be sold or distributed in Hong Kong. If a product fails to compile with relevant statutory requirements (such as being unregistered, or found to have quality defects or adulterated with harmful substances), the DH will investigate and make public announcements as soon as possible to safeguard public health. In addition, if the concerned medicines are also classified as Part 1 poisons under the Ordinance, the medicines should only be sold by pharmacies and under the supervision of registered pharmacists. Illegal sale or possession of unregistered pharmaceutical products or Part 1 poisons are criminal offences under the Ordinance, which upon conviction, are subject to a penalty of a fine up to HK$100,000 and an imprisonment of two years.

If the DH detects any suspected illegal sale or possession of pharmaceutical products, the DH will promptly investigate, and, if necessary, conduct joint operations with other law enforcement agencies, and any irregularities so found will be dealt with in accordance with the law. For this specific case, the DH will investigate along the line of illegal sale of unregistered pharmaceutical products. In the past five years (from 2020 to June 2024), the Drug Office of the DH handled 209 conviction cases involving the illegal sale or possession of unregistered pharmaceutical products or Part 1 poisons, with the highest penalty of imprisonment of 10 months or a fine of up to HK$100,000.

​The DH has been reminding the public, through publicity and education including various online materials such as "General Knowledge on the Use of Medicines" and "Be Cautious when Buying Medicines on Internet", to refrain from purchasing or using products with unknown or dubious ingredients, or from unknown sources, for protection of public health.

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