The Ministry of Health and Community Protection revealed receiving reports issued by international organizations indicating the presence of impurity (NDMA) in proportions exceeding the permissible rate, in some products and for some manufacturers of metformin, which is dispensed with a prescription for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Impurity is usually found at low levels in a variety of foods and some drinking water and polluted air, but exposure to them in greater quantities than acceptable limits for daily consumption for very long periods of time increases the risk of cancer, according to the International Research Agency for Cancer.
In December 2019, the Ministry issued a circular to health facilities, health care practitioners, pharmaceutical companies and local factories, regarding monitoring of the possibility of impurities in metformin drugs, and recommended that patients not stop taking metformin medication except under the supervision of a doctor.
It also recommended that health care practitioners continue to prescribe metformin drugs as usual until new information from the ministry arrives.
And the producing companies demanded to submit a full analysis report of the active substance and the final product, provided that the analysis be carried out in an accredited laboratory, and the producing companies submit the required reports within six months (before the end of this month as a maximum).
The ministry indicated that it took all precautions to preserve the safety of patients by following the proportions of the substance mentioned in the raw materials imported from local factories to manufacture drugs that contain "metformin", stressing that it has not yet been found that there are unacceptable ratios in products marketed in the state.
The Assistant Undersecretary for the Public Health Policy and Licensing Sector, Dr. Amin Hussein Al-Amiri, stated that the Ministry is continuing to carry out the necessary analyzes of the pharmaceutical preparations that contain the same substance, and will immediately announce the results of analyzing the products that are proven contaminated with NDMA impurities and withdraw them.
Al-Amiri called on health care practitioners and community members to notify the ministry of any side effects of the drugs. He said that the ministry communicates daily with international organizations concerned with the drug, such as the American Food and Drug Authority, the European Medicines Authority, and the Australian Medicines Authority, as well as drug factories, to check for any warnings regarding any medication.