NDMA Testing for Metformin to Be Prepared This Year
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced on Dec. 16 that it would test Metformin available in South Korea, advising patients not to stop their use of the antidiabetic drug arbitrarily without a doctor’s consultation. Recently, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) of Singapore announced that it detected N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) as a potential carcinogen in three out of 46 Metformin-containing drugs and would collect the products.
The South Korean ministry already confirmed that South Korea has not imported the same products as those to be collected in Singapore. “We are currently conducting precautionary material tests and will come up with NDMA testing methods for Metformin within this year,” the ministry explained, adding, “Raw materials and drug products will be collected for testing after the method preparation, and we are working closely with the European Medicines Agency, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency of Japan for data exchange.”
The ministry and the Korean Diabetes Association said that patients taking the drug must not stop taking it arbitrarily as it must be continuously taken for treatment. They also stressed that any test result will be made public immediately.