§ Mr. David NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps, following the product recall in 719W respect of the import of counterfeit Zantac tablets, his Department is taking to ascertain the extent of penetration of these or other counterfeit products into use by patients in the United Kingdom;
(2) what safeguards he is now preparing under the product licences (parallel imports) scheme to ensure that there is no repetition, in the case of any other product, of the importation of counterfeit Zantac tablets, apparently of Greek origin; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MellorNo evidence has appeared to show that any such counterfeit tablets actually reached United Kingdom pharmacists or patients.
Tests carried out on retained samples suggested that all supplies with the suspect batch number distributed within the United Kingdom may have been genuine. A batch of counterfeit Zantac tablets was rejected by a parallel importer and returned to his Greek suppliers. These counterfeits were accordingly discovered under existing safeguards.
Surveillance operations already carried out by the Department include a sampling and testing programme by the medicines inspectorate, requirements for licensed importers to verify the identity of each batch of imported material and close co-operation with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society inspectors.
We are still investigating the background to the counterfeit material and will be considering whether any changes may be necessary to the United Kingdom parallel import scheme. We also maintain close co-operation with our colleagues in the European Community.