HSA removes 1,700-odd product listings claiming to prevent, treat or test out COVID-19

SINGAPORE — Since February, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) has removed more than 1,700 product listings for making fraudulent COVID-19 claims, and issued over 1,600 warning letters to sellers and companies marketing such products.

In a media release on Wednesday (6 May), HSA said that the products – which include test kits for home use, health supplements, herbs, traditional medicines and hand sanitisers – came with false and misleading claims of preventing, treating or diagnosing COVID-19.

“Consumers should be aware that there are no HSA approved home-based test kits; no health supplements or herbal remedies, and no consumer devices approved for COVID-19 diagnosis or treatment. Do not fall for the marketing gimmicks of sellers and retailers,” said Chan Cheng Leng, HSA’s group director of the Health Products Regulation Group.

“Not only do consumers waste money on these unproven remedies, they may put themselves and people around them at unnecessary risk due to the false sense of security.”

No COVID-19 test kits approved for home use yet

To date, HSA has detected and removed more than 40 listings of COVID-19 test kits for sale on local e-commerce platforms such as Carousell, Lazada, Shopee, eBay and Facebook.

The sellers of these test kits have made fraudulent claims such as “positive results may be visible (in) as soon as two minutes”, “95 per cent accuracy and results within 10 minutes” or “diagnose COVID-19 within 10 minutes”.

The kits were sold at prices ranging from $10 to $290. HSA’s investigation found that none of the sellers had the physical stocks with them, and they would import them from overseas only upon receiving the orders.

HSA said that it has not approved any COVID-19 test kits for home use. These test kits are not validated by the authority and have inherent design and technology limitations that may result in incorrect or misleading findings.

Currently, testing for COVID-19 in Singapore can only be done by clinical laboratories or medical professionals in clinics and hospitals.

Health products being falsely advertised

Many sellers and companies have also falsely advertised an array of products – health supplements, traditional medicines, herbal remedies and probiotics – as being able to prevent or fight against COVID-19.

Health supplements such as “red ginseng” and “Hawaiian spirulina” sold online were promoted as being “good for coronavirus”, and herbal fragrance pouches sold at a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinic were marketed to help “protect from the coronavirus”.

HSA said it has detected and removed over a hundred of such online listings and issued warnings. It said that most of the products are meant for general health and wellness, and there is no scientific evidence that any of these products can prevent or treat COVID-19.

Misleading claims have also been made on hand and body sanitisers. HSA has issued more than 650 warning letters to sellers and companies which claimed in their advertisements that the sanitisers “protect against coronavirus”, “kill viruses including coronavirus” and “stop coronavirus”.

HSA said that hand sanitisers may not eliminate all types of germs and viruses, and may not work well if hands are dirty.

Products must first be evaluated by HSA

HSA reminds dealers and sellers not to make false or misleading claims that the products they are selling can prevent, protect against or treat diseases such as COVID-19.

Any claim must be supported by the appropriate scientific evidence, and a product that makes such a claim must first be evaluated and registered by HSA.

Sellers who falsely advertise products as preventing or treating COVID-19 are liable to prosecution and if convicted, may be imprisoned for up to a year and/or fined up to $20,000.

Consumers can report any suspicious sale or advertising of health products with COVID-19 related claims to HSA, through email at hsa_is@hsa.gov.sg or by phone at 6866-3485.

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