Hovid's manufacturing licences revoked

fnhovid 13 - Hovid's products on display at one of its pharmacy outlet in Ipoh.

KUALA LUMPUR: Hovid, which last week issued a recall of a batch of its Ternolol hypertension tablets, has halted all its manufacturing activities following the revocation of its manufacturing licences by the Health Ministry.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia on Monday, the pharmaceutical and herbal products maker said the ministry’s Pharmaceutical Services Division (PSD) had faxed it a letter on Monday at 8.58am on the cancellation.

PSD decided to repeal the manufacturing licences for both Hovid’s facilities in Perak as a result of the audit conducted by National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Department (NPRA) on Thursday last week which found that Hovid’s Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) compliance were not acceptable and its pharmaceutical quality system does not comply with the latest cGMP requirements.

Hovid said it targeted to revert with the necessary corrective actions to comply with cGMP required by NPRA by end of this month and would invite the NPRA to audit its facilities and cGMP immediately thereafter.

The re-issuance of the licences will be subject to NPRA being satisfied with the outcome of its audit.

Hovid said its distribution subsidiaries in Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines would continue to market and sell the existing stocks held by them respectively.

Hovid shares, which were voluntarily suspended from trading from 11:23am on Monday pending the announcement, will resume trading at 9am on Tuesday. The shares were last traded at 34.5 sen.