All medications including traditional medicine must first be registered with Drug Control Authority (DCA), Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) before being imported, manufactured or sold in Malaysia. The purpose of product registration is to ensure all medications are evaluated in terms of safety, quality and efficacy in protecting people’s health. Unregistered medicine may contain prohibited substances that will endanger the health of consumers.
Unregistered medicine and healthcare products issue in Malaysia was tackled well before this. However, there is a rise in the cases of unregistered medicines reported following the rise of Covid-19 during Movement Control Order (MCO) and Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) periods.
From March 18 to April 20 year 2020, a total of 38 complaints were received regarding the sales of medicine allegedly usable to treat Covid-19. MOH also identified and blocked 182 websites selling unregistered drugs for Covid-19 and issued 556 notices to e-marketplace to curb the sale of unregistered medical products.
Under the operation Op Pangea XIII carried out between March 3 to 10 year 2020, MOH successfully identified 347 personal websites, 360 social media accounts and 585 e-market place links found selling unregistered medicines. More than one million units of unregistered medicines worth RM2.55 million was seized in the operation.
Consumers in Malaysia can check whether the product is registered with DCA via Registered Products Search available on NPRA website. Medicines that have been registered with DCA will be given a particular registration number. The registration number can be found on label and packaging of the medicine. The registration number start with MAL, followed by 8 digits and ends with an alphabet that reflects the category of the product.
