KUALA LUMPUR, June 11 — The Health Ministry today confirmed that the cosmetic product, Brilliant Skin Essentials Whitening Facial Cream, contains the scheduled poison Tretinoin.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the product’s notification has been canceled by the Health Ministry’s Pharmaceutical Services senior director.
“As such, the product is no longer allowed to be sold in Malaysia. The Health Ministry (MOH) is urging consumers to stop using the product,” he said in a statement today.
He said products that contain tretinoin are drugs that need to be registered with the Drug Control Authority and can only be used with the advice of a health professional.
Dr Noor Hisham said unsupervised usage of products with tretinoin can cause skin redness, discomfort, stinging, flaky skin and hypersensitivity to sunlight.
He also reminded those who sell and distribute the product were violating the Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulations 1984.
Individuals who commit the offence can be fined not more than RM25,000 or face a maximum of three years imprisonment, or both, for the first offence.
For subsequent offences, they can be fined not more than RM50,000 or a maximum of five years imprisonment, or both.
Companies that commit the offence can be fined up to RM50,000 for the first offence and up to RM100,000 for subsequent offences, he said.
