Warning over adulteration of proprietary Chinese meds

An analysis published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology has warned of ‘serious dangers’ resulting from the widespread adulteration of proprietary Chinese medicines (pCMs) and health products with undeclared agents, including prescription drugs, drug analogues, and banned drugs.

Investigators at a tertiary referral clinical toxicology laboratory in Hong Kong retrospectively reviewed cases involving use of pCMs or health products adulterated with undeclared drugs referred to the center from 2005 to 2015, identifying 404 cases involving the use of 487 adulterated pCMs or health products, with a total of 1,234 adulterants.