HSA issues warnings on 3 products, including one containing erectile dysfunction medicine; 2 men suffer adverse side effects

SINGAPORE — The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) is warning people not to buy or consume three types of health products, after two men suffered adverse side effects, including one who took a product that contains tadalafil, an erectile dysfunction medicine.

In a press statement on Tuesday (May 16), HSA said that the three products are: “Lorenxo Delicious Pure Chocolate Supplement”, “DND Rx9” and “Mofa Coffee”.

Its analysis of the products found that they contained "potent medicinal ingredients" including tadalafil, steroids and sibutramine, a banned weight loss medicine.

MAN DEVELOPED SEVERE HEADACHES

HSA said that a man in his 30s developed severe headaches after taking a dietary supplement named “Lorenxo Delicious Pure Chocolate Supplement”, which was falsely labelled to contain only natural ingredients.

The man had bought the product from an e-commerce platform here.

His doctor diagnosed the headache to be associated with a potent medicinal ingredient, which was later tested by HSA to be tadalafil, used to treat erectile dysfunction that should only be given under medical supervision.

“Use of tadalafil without proper medical supervision is dangerous and can increase the risk of serious adverse effects, including heart attacks, stroke, headaches, migraines, irregular heart rate and priapism (painful and exceedingly long erections),” HSA said.

SECOND MAN SUFFERED STEROID-INDUCED ADVERSE EFFECT

Another man, also in his 30s, developed Cushing’s syndrome, a serious steroid-induced condition characterised by a round face or "moon face" appearance, after taking "DND Rx9" for several months for gout.

He had obtained the product by courier from Malaysia through the seller’s website.

Based on his symptoms and abnormal blood results, his doctor suspected that the product could be adulterated with steroids.

HSA later tested the product and found that it contained the potent steroids, dexamethasone and prednisolone, as well as a painkiller, diclofenac.

“Long-term unsupervised use of such steroids can also cause increased blood sugar levels, which could lead to diabetes and other serious adverse effects.

“Unsupervised use of diclofenac can lead to damage and bleeding of the stomach,” the authority added.

HIGH LEVELS OF BANNED WEIGHT-LOSS MEDICINE

HSA said that uncovered consignments of “Mofa Coffee” were discovered by Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officers at Changi Airfreight Centre, who had noticed anomalies in the scanned images of two parcels from Malaysia.

They were later referred to HSA for further investigations.

The labels found in the product stated that it is meant to aid appetite suppression and contains natural ingredients such as coffee extract, white kidney bean extract and garcinia cambogia.

However, HSA’s test revealed that it contained high levels of sibutramine, which may cause serious adverse effects when consumed.

Sibutramine is a prescription-only weight-loss medicine that has been banned in Singapore since 2010 due to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

Other serious health consequences include heart problems and central nervous system disorders (such as psychosis and hallucinations), HSA said.

In 2019, a consumer experienced an extremely fast heart rate and became unconscious after taking a product adulterated with sibutramine. She was resuscitated and suffered debilitating consequences requiring the implantation of a defibrillator (a medical device), to help her heart to function, HSA added.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS TO BE REMOVED FROM LISTINGS

HSA said that “Lorenxo Delicious Pure Chocolate Supplement” and “Mofa Coffee” were sold on multiple e-commerce and social media platforms in Singapore, including Carousell, Qoo10, Shopee and Facebook.

“HSA has worked with the platform administrators to remove the affected listings and has also alerted its Malaysian counterpart to the two products 'DND Rx9' and 'Mofa Coffee' that were purchased or sourced from Malaysia,” it added.

It has directed sellers and suppliers to stop selling these products immediately, and said that it will not hesitate to take stern enforcement actions against anyone who sells and supplies products found to be adulterated with banned substances or potent ingredients.

Offenders may be liable to prosecution and if convicted, may be jailed up to two years or fined up to S$10,000, or both.

Anyone with any information on the sale and supply of these products may contact HSA’s enforcement branch at 6866 3485 or via email at hsa_is [at] hsa.gov.sg.

HSA said that investigations are ongoing on the latest cases.