RM1mil in illegal medicine seized

Not safe to use: Dr Mohamad (centre) showing some of the unregistered health medicines and beauty products seized during the raid.

KUALA TERENGGANU: Illegal medicine and beauty products worth nearly RM1mil were seized during raids on two online businesses.

The raids, jointly by the Health Department and the CyberSecurity Malaysia enforcement officers, was conducted on Sept 20 and 21 following a three-month surveillance on two online beauty and health businesses, said Terengganu Health Department director Dr Mohamad Omar yesterday.

In the latest operation in Besut on Monday, the enforcement team raided an outlet owned by a youth in his 20s with 40 employees actively conducting online business transactions with clients.

Boxes of a very popular medication for diabetes, hypertension and gout, worth more than RM800,000, were seized.

In an operation a day earlier, a 40-year-old female civil servant who was about to courier products to her client near the PosLaju office here, was approached by enforcement officers.

Preliminary questioning led the team to her house where some 44 items of beauty products, including Vitamin C injection ­products, breast enlargement pills and injections, erectile dysfunction medications and other skin whitening products were seized.

“All the medication and health products seized were not registered with the Health Ministry,” he told reporters yesterday.

He said the seized products containing tranexamic acid and progesterone, which is normally used to stop bleeding, were being misused for facial whitening.

“This is very dangerous as the patient or client is exposed to the risk of a stroke or a heart attack,” he said.

Dr Mohamad also reminded patients or beauty product seekers to ensure that the products were registered with the Health Ministry before buying them.

He also warned online health product ­buyers not to risk their lives by trusting ­unauthorised online businesses.

He added that prior to these two raids, as of January to August, the state Health Depart­ment enforcement team had seized a total of RM370,000 worth of unregistered medications and health products after inspecting some 322 premises and 35 operations.