Business is business, and selling bio-herbal products is a good thing, if it is registered products. But that was not the case when authorities recorded a haul of over 7,600 unregistered bio-herbal products in seizures, according to The Star Online.

Almost half of the unregistered pharmaceutical products seized are made up of bio-herbal products. Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said that until October this year, 7,632 unregistered bio-herbal products valued at over RM2.9mil were seized from the market. “In total, 45.6% of the seized unregistered products are bio-herbal products,” he told reporters after launching the third Global Bio-Herbs Economic Forum sponsored by HEWO here on Saturday.

Liow said the ministry would still check such products even after they had been registered and marketed. “This year, 279 bio-herbal products worth RM2.3mil were seized from the open market for infringing various laws,’’ he said. He said that there were 175 licensed manufacturers and 150 licensed importers of bio-herbal products in the country. “All these products must be registered with the Drug Control Authority. “From 1991 to November this year, 20,129 products were registered with the agency, constituting 8.3% of the total 243,520 pharmaceutical products registered in the country,”.

The Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology projected the local market for herbal products at about RM4.5bil in 2005 with a growth rate of 10% to 15% per annum.