The Department of Health is investigating a case in which different expiry dates were shown on the labels of a batch of pharmaceutical product supplied by Medipharma.

The Hospital Authority reported the case today after it found the discrepancy during a drug stock-taking exercise.

The drug involved is sodium chloride in 900mg tablets used for mouth cleaning. The actual expiry date of the drug (batch no. 810655) is October 31, 2012 - but two bottles of the drug supplied to the Prince of Wales Hospital have an expiry date mislabeled as October 30, 2012.

A total of 172 bottles of the affected batch had been distributed to 12 public hospitals while another 14 bottles were supplied to the Anti-Cancer Society and two pharmacies. 

The cause of the discrepancy is suspected to be related to oversight when the labels were being prepared. The department inspected the company today and did not find the same kind of discrepancy in other pharmaceutical products.

As the expiry date shown on the bottles in question is one day ahead of the actual expiry date, there is no safety, efficacy or quality concern with the use of the drug, the department said.

It has cautioned the company concerned to review its labeling procedure and to take immediate remedial measures including re-labeling the product in question.