Hovid’s manufacturing licences revoked by ministry

PETALING JAYA: Hovid Bhd’s manufacturing licences have been revoked by the Health Ministry’s Pharmaceutical Services Division following an audit conducted by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Department (NPRA) last Thursday.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Hovid said it received the letter on the revocation at 8.58am yesterday.

The manufacturing licences for both its facilities located at Chemor and Ipoh in Perak have been revoked. Consequently, all its manufacturing activities have been halted with immediate effect.

Hovid said the audit findings revealed that its Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) compliance are not acceptable, and Pharmaceutical Quality System does not comply with the latest cGMP requirements.

“Hovid targets to revert with the necessary corrective actions to comply with cGMP required by NPRA by end of January 2017, and will invite the NPRA to audit our facilities and cGMP immediately thereafter. The re-issuance of the licences will be subject to NPRA being satisfied with the outcome of their audit,” it said.

“However, our distribution subsidiaries in Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines will continue to market and sell the existing stocks held by them respectively,” it added.

Trading in its shares were suspended yesterday pending the announcement and resumes today.

Last Friday, Hovid initiated a product recall for Ternolol 50mg film-coated tablets manufactured under the batch number BG04645 for the Malaysian market.

Hovid had said that it is investigating the matter and expects to implement the required preventive measures to avoid reoccurrence.