Retailers asked to remove hundreds of health supplements

By FRANCESCA MOLD and ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

Health officials hope hundreds of health supplements will be pulled from supermarkets and health shops today as the full list of products made by disgraced Australian company Pan Pharmaceuticals is revealed.

More than 200 products were recalled in Australia this week when an audit revealed the company's breach of safety standards.

The problem widened last night when Australia's drugs watchdog added a further 449 products to the recall list.

That makes 668 products with possible health risks - and the Therapeutic Goods Administration indicated the list could reach 1000.

Pan is accused of substituting ingredients, manipulating test results and having substandard manufacturing processes.

The New Zealand Food Safety Authority said yesterday that none of the 219 products initially recalled in Australia was on sale in New Zealand. But Pan also makes products sold under other brand names - a long list Australian officials were able to start releasing only last night.

As the list was updated on the TGA website, NZ Food Safety Authority policy and regulatory standards director Carole Inkster said she hoped a "better be safe than sorry" attitude would be adopted, and the products recalled.

"We have been working with the companies to ensure they take the most sensible option and recall any potentially non-compliant products."

She agreed hundreds, if not thousands, of products could be affected.

Last night the country's largest health store chain was already urging customers to return products made by Pan Pharmaceuticals.

These may include Nature's Own, Bio-Organics and Natural Nutrition products, which Health 2000 started recalling.

Marketing director Tom Bleier said there was no evidence anybody in New Zealand had been affected by the substances, which had been on sale here for a long time. "However, we feel the only way to safeguard our customers is to order an immediate recall," he said.

Other health product companies, like Roche, put out statements to reassure people that their products were not made by Pan.

Pan Pharmaceuticals yesterday blamed some of its safety and quality breaches on human error.

Chairman Ross Brown said a laboratory analyst was found falsifying test results during final checks on a Pan travel sickness pill, Travacalm.

The pill caused up to 80 adverse reactions, put 19 people in hospital, and sparked the investigation into Pan in January.

Health Minister Annette King asked the health product industry to "be responsible on behalf of all New Zealanders" and recall any suspect products.

National Nutritional Foods Association president Bill Bracks said the industry would act on the recall notice, but he believed the reaction by health authorities was "knee-jerk".

In the past 10 years, New Zealand had produced about $1.3 billion worth of health supplements with no reported deaths and 0.1 per cent adverse reactions.