(Central News Agency, Tokyo, 27th, comprehensive foreign news reports) The Japanese pharmaceutical company “Kokutō” was ordered to suspend operations by the Toyama Prefectural Government yesterday based on the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act for producing the gastrointestinal drug “Shoro Pill” with insufficient ingredients and then falsifying data for shipment. Jidong has been known to falsify drug test results for more than 30 years.
Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported that so far no reports of health damage to people in Toyama Prefecture have been received. The business suspension order issued by the Toyama Prefectural Government yesterday will take effect from April 30, suspending the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals by Kotoku for 23 days and suspending sales for 22 days.
The drug called “Shoro Pill” is produced and manufactured by several pharmaceutical companies in Japan.
The Toyama Prefectural Government stated that according to Japanese national standards, Jitong produced “Shoro Pills” with insufficient necessary ingredients, but submitted false drug test results and shipped them.
When the Toyama Prefectural Government conducted a surprise inspection in the summer of 2022, it discovered that Jidong had deficiencies in production. At that time, Jidong conducted an independent recycling operation of 5.16 million medicines. Jidong said it has been falsifying drug test results since at least 30 years ago.
Jidong said in a statement yesterday that it has always lacked the awareness to comply with the law in the past and sincerely apologizes to the relevant parties.
KNB reported that in addition to apologizing in an interview yesterday, Jidong also stated that in the future, the cause would be thoroughly investigated and measures to prevent a similar situation from happening again.
In recent years, pharmaceutical companies in Toyama Prefecture have been experiencing incidents of improper manufacturing processes. This time, Jitong has been subject to administrative sanctions by the prefectural government. This is the seventh case in the past five years.
Beiguo Shimbun reported that four gastrointestinal drugs such as “Zhengro Pills” produced by Jidong were also found to have violated laws and regulations without conducting quality tests when purchasing raw materials, but directly using the raw material manufacturer’s test data. (Translator: Huang Mingxi) 1130427
