Housewife fined $16,000 for illegally importing ovulation and pregnancy test kits to sell on Qoo10

SINGAPORE — An enterprising housewife who sold ovulation and pregnancy test kits online for two years earned an average of $2,000 a month from those sales, a court heard.

But Pan Feng’s medical devices were neither registered under the Health Products Act, nor did she have a licence from the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) to import them.

The 35-year-old Singaporean PR from China was caught red-handed at the airport trying to bring in 8,201 pieces of “David Ovulation Test” kits and 7,400 pieces of “David Pregnancy Test” kits.

The devices from China were seized by immigration officers and referred to the HSA’s enforcement branch.

At the State Courts on Wednesday (15 May), Pan was fined $16,000 after she pleaded guilty to two charges of importing health products without a licence under the Health Products Act.

She also admitted to six counts of supplying unregistered medical devices, which were considered in her sentencing.

False negative results may create anxiety, harm

Pan had her two pieces of luggage searched at Changi Airport Terminal 1 on 30 March 2016.

During questioning, she admitted to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officers that the test kits belonged to her and were meant for sale.

HSA’s checks showed no importer’s licence for the products.

Pan said she wanted to sell the kits on e-commerce platform Qoo10. She would sell the pregnancy kits for 35 cents each, and the ovulation kits for 40 cents each. She would earn a profit of about 20 cents per kit, and earn an average of $2,000 per month from the sales of the devices.

HSA prosecutor Sangeeta Kumar said the safety and performance of such unregistered medical devices have not been ascertained. They may not comply with applicable product standards or be defective, and generate an unacceptable number of false negative or false positive results.

“False negative ovulation test results may create unnecessary anxiety in users and reduce the chances of successful conception when users miss the opportunity for fertilisation of the egg,” said the prosecutor.

“Besides a pregnancy not being detected sooner or in time for the appropriate medical judgment to be made, false negative results could result in a patient being prescribed teratogenic drugs or being made to undergo a procedure that may end up harming the foetus,” she added.

For each of her charges under the Health Products Act, Pan could have been fined up to $50,000 and jailed for up to two years.

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