The Min­istry of Health (MoH), via its Drug In­spec­torate Di­vi­sion, has is­sued a warn­ing about four batch­es of HEAL­MOXY Cap­sules 500mg, which have been de­ter­mined by the World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (WHO) to be fal­si­fied.

The ac­tive phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal in­gre­di­ent in gen­uine HEAL­MOXY cap­sules is amox­i­cillin. It is an an­tibi­ot­ic used to treat a va­ri­ety of bac­te­r­i­al in­fec­tions, in­clud­ing mid­dle ear in­fec­tions, pneu­mo­nia, skin in­fec­tions, den­tal in­fec­tions, and uri­nary tract in­fec­tions.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­lease from the Min­istry, which quotes a WHO Med­ical Prod­uct Alert:

“The fal­si­fied prod­ucts have been de­tect­ed in Cameroon and the Cen­tral African Re­pub­lic. The alert fur­ther stat­ed that the fal­si­fied prod­ucts are un­safe and may pose sig­nif­i­cant health risks, par­tic­u­lar­ly for se­vere in­fec­tions or vul­ner­a­ble in­di­vid­u­als.”

Quot­ing the WHO Alert, the Min­istry re­ports that the fal­si­fied prod­uct can be iden­ti­fied by the mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of their iden­ti­ty, com­po­si­tion, and source:

· ● Analy­sis of sam­ples of the fal­si­fied HEAL­MOXY found the cap­sules did not con­tain the stat­ed ac­tive in­gre­di­ent, specif­i­cal­ly, amox­i­cillin.

· ● At least two of the fal­si­fied prod­ucts dis­play in­con­sis­tent for­mats for man­u­fac­ture and ex­piry dates. Dates on these fal­si­fied prod­ucts are dis­played as day/month/year in eight dig­its (e.g., 10/01/2027).

The Medical Product Alert issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) concerning falsified HEALMOXY Capsules 500mg. Image courtesy Ministry of Health (MOH)

Ministry of Health

The Health Min­istry notes that the prod­uct is not reg­is­tered for use in Trinidad and To­ba­go nor has any au­tho­ri­sa­tion for im­port been is­sued. It says it is is­su­ing the alert “out of an abun­dance of cau­tion”, and ad­vis­ing per­sons who may be in pos­ses­sion of the drug “to dis­con­tin­ue use im­me­di­ate­ly.”

The Min­istry says the pub­lic can ob­tain ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion by con­tact­ing the Of­fice of the Prin­ci­pal Phar­ma­cist, Drug In­spec­torate via:

· ● Email at dru­g­in­spec­torate@health.gov.tt

· ● Phone at 217-4664 ext. 13401.