Tough action coming after claims of antibiotics sold at grocery

PETALING JAYA: Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad has promised more prompt aggressive measures following a social media post claiming that an antibiotic, azithromycin, was being openly sold at a grocery store in Johor. In his reply to the post, Dzulkefly said the ministry’s Pharmacy Division will take aggressive measures promptly.

“Thanks for the alert @hafezfirdaus. This is extremely terrible... AMR (antimicrobial resistance)!”

Earlier, a user with the X handle @fiholic claimed that azithromycin was being sold like “candies for RM15 a dozen” at a grocery store in Forest City.

“Azithromycin is an antibiotic that requires prescription. You can’t sell them openly, even in legit pharmacies,” he wrote.

Azithromycin is a prescription drug used to treat infections, including those for the chest, such as pneumonia, as well as ear, nose, throat and sinus.

Reacting to this, some users also highlighted that consuming antibiotics without prescription could lead to antimicrobial resistance or AMR.

On Wednesday, the Health Ministry said unregistered medication, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products worth over RM400,000 had been seized in Malaysia by local authorities as part of the Interpol-coordinated worldwide Operation Pangea XVI.

The Malaysian operations, coordinated by the Health Ministry’s Pharmacy Enforcement Division, also involved Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB) Malaysia, the Royal Malaysian Customs Department and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Health Ministry senior director of pharmacy services Norhaliza A. Halim said that 1,675 websites, social media accounts and ecommerce sites selling pharmaceutical products were found to have breached the law.

She said 76% of these were ecommerce platforms.