Press Release

Recall of wrongly packaged cough medicines

2 August 2005

The Department of Health (DH) today (August 2) advised members of the public who had purchased "Duro-tuss" cough medicines to check the package to see whether they have purchased the wrongly packaged medicines.

A DH spokesman said that DH was informed by the importer of the medicines, 3M Hong Kong Limited, that 80 bottles of "Duro-tuss Linctus Forte????????" had been wrongly packaged in "Duro-tuss Linctus Regular??????" boxes.

The bottles of medicine in question were supplied to authorized sellers of poisons, two private hospitals and a private medical practitioner. The recall by the importer is in progress, and so far 29 bottles have been recalled.

Members of the public who have purchased or are using the medicines should double-check the wordings on both the box and the bottle inside to see whether they tally with each other.

The box of the wrongly packaged cough product is labelled "Duro-tuss Cough Linctus Regular??????" in both English and Chinese but the bottle is labelled "Duro-tuss Cough Linctus Forte" in English only.

The box of the product in question is printed with the batch number M210C, while the bottle inside is printed with the batch number M300C.

Both products, registered in Hong Kong, do not require doctor's prescription but are sold in dispensaries under pharmacist's supervision.

The spokesman said that "Duro-tuss Forte" contains 15mg/5ml of pholcodine while "Duro-tuss Regular" contains 15mg/15ml of pholcodine. Both are packed in bottles of 100ml.

He said that use of the "Forte" medicine instead of the "Regular" one means taking three times the intended amount of pholcodine and may cause drowsiness, confusion and respiratory depression.

Members of the public who have purchased the wrongly packaged medicines should immediately stop taking it and seek medical consultation if they feel unwell.

They can call the hotline of 3M Hong Kong Limited at 2805 8037 to arrange for the return of the medicine.

Members of the public may also call DH's hotline at 2319 2839 for enquiries during office hours.