Debated in Parliament on 16 Feb 2024.
Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry will consider increased penalties for offences related to the sale of illegal health products; (b) whether the Ministry is deploying technology to ensure effective identification of and enforcement against illegal health product sales; (c) what percentage of the illegal health products are offered by sellers based overseas; and (e) whether there are plans for more collaboration with international counterparts to improve enforcement effectiveness.
The current penalties for sellers of illegal products are a fine of up to $100,000 and/or up to three years imprisonment under the Health Products Act. This is higher than previous penalties of up to $5,000 and/or up to two years imprisonment under the Medicines Act back in 2007.
To enforce against such violations, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) conducts surveillance, collects intelligence on illegal activities and employs an e-commerce surveillance tool to proactively scan listings on major local e-commerce platforms to detect and remove illegal health products from online marketplaces.
In 2023, approximately 14% of illegal health product listings on major local e-commerce platforms were by overseas sellers. While HSA does not have extra-territorial powers, it works closely with the local platforms to remove these product listings. HSA also actively participates in international operations and exchanges information with overseas enforcement counterparts for them to take actions. In 2023, HSA participated in two international operations led by INTERPOL targeting illegal health product sales and removed a total of over 7,000 online listings.
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