Dubai: Maintaining the highest levels of public safety standards, the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) announced that it had withdrawn one batch of the API Sinocort Nasal Spray used for the treatment of asthma and blocked airways. The decision was made after having reviewed the study reports of the approved specifications of the drug. Analysis showed that the batch did not conform to those specifications.

The UAE Health Ministry accordingly issued a circular to directors of medical districts, public and private hospitals, physicians, pharmacists, assistant pharmacists and directors of government and private pharmacies to withdraw one batch of this generic drug manufactured by Amman Jordan Pharmaceutical Industries with batch number ME051.

Dr Amin Hussein Al Amiri, the Assistant Undersecretary at the Ministry of Health and Prevention’s Public Health Policy and Licences and Chairman of the Supreme National Committee for Pharmacovigilance, said the Health Ministry, through the circular, was requesting the drug supplier to withdraw the nonconforming batch from public and private sector and was asking health-care practitioners not to prescribe it, as well as pharmacists to stop selling the said batch and to return it to the drug supplier.

He urged community members to report any adverse effects of the batch, if used, by sending an email to ph@moh.gov.ae or through the E-system on health ministry’s website, www.mohap.gov.ae, or through the smart app ‘UAE RADAR’. He also added that all drug-related circulars were available on the ministry’s website.

He further urged individuals to dispose of the said batch, if they had any medicine from the said batch and asked people to consult their attending physicians to prescribe conforming batches of the medicine. “The Health Ministry is committed to protecting the health and safety of the society and that the Pharmacovigilance Committee is constantly communicating with international drug authorities, as well as local and international pharmaceutical companies, to be up to date with the updates of drug-related safety warnings,” said Dr Al Amiri.