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Updated Wednesday, October 14, 2009 9:24 am TWN, The China Post news staff

No basis for classifying vitamins as drugs: court

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The High Court yesterday upheld the Taipei District Court's ruling that found a pharmacy owner not guilty for reselling vitamins she had purchased from abroad, citing the lack of legal basis for health authorities' classification of vitamins as drugs.

The court was cited as asserting that the Department of Health (DOH) fails to differentiate vitamins from drugs from a legal perspective.

Prosecutors had charged Hsieh Su-yi of the Luck Star Pharmacy in downtown Taipei with selling Centrum that her friends had brought from the United States, claiming that the product was a banned drug.

Unlike more than 100 other countries, Taiwan lists vitamins as drugs, and imported vitamins must receive DOH permission before marketing locally.

The stringent laws have caused the prices of vitamins sold in Taiwan to cost several times more than prices charged elsewhere.

Lawmakers yesterday blasted health officials for not putting in more effort to defend consumer rights, reported Radio Taiwan International News.

According to Lin Hung-chih of the ruling party, Centrum is priced at around NT$7 per tablet in Taiwan.

In the United States where vitamins are considered food, each tablet is priced at NT$2, Lin was cited as saying.

The Bureau of Pharmaceutical Affairs under the DOH explained that health authorities would respect the court ruling and would amend related laws before the end of the year.

But despite the legality of the DOH's product classification of vitamins, high-dosage vitamins should still comply with current regulation as to ensure safe consumption, particularly dietary supplements that include fat-soluble vitamins, namely retinol (Vitamin A), cholecalciferol (Vitamin D3), tocopherol (Vitamin E), and phylloquinone (Vitamin K).

The Cabinet-level health department had previously relaxed regulations of vitamins as drugs in accordance with recommendation given by the district court after its ruling.

According to proprietors of pharmacies, this had helped lower prices of many low-dose vitamins by 20 percent.

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