Assurance Of Safety Of Blood Products And Vaccines In Singapore

7 February 2001

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07 Feb 2001

The Ministry of Health has been informed by JDH Pharmaceutical Division, the local agent of Bio Products Laboratory (BPL), that the 3 vials of the affected batch of immunoglobulin Inj "Vigam S" were sent by BPL to Inchcape JDH Ltd in Hong Kong on 31 Jan 97, and not to Singapore as earlier reported by BPL.

The Ministry would like to emphasise that there has been no importation into Singapore of immunoglobulin derived from British blood donors, and hence, no administration of contaminated blood products to any patient in Singapore. The Ministry also reassures the public that the polio vaccine products registered for use in Singapore are safe and do not contain contaminated British blood products, and that the contaminated BPL vaccine has not been approved for use in Singapore.

The Ministry applies strict criteria of quality, safety and efficacy for the registration of blood products and vaccines in line with international standards. This includes requiring certification of the source of donor material from which the blood products are derived. Since the discovery of variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the Ministry has excluded donor source material from UK. The blood products and vaccines currently registered in Singapore are therefore derived from blood collected from non-UK donors.