FDA shuts down Tarlac pharmacy for selling unregistered products

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday (Aug. 17) orders the shutdown of the Dr. Farrah Bunch Natural Medical Center at Victoria town in Tarlac province for selling unregistered health products. INQUIRER photo / Maria Adelaida Calayag

VICTORIA, Tarlac—A well-established pharmacy and medical center in Tarlac province was closed down on Friday (Aug. 17) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after a court-approved search revealed it had been selling unregistered health products.

The Dr. Farrah Agustin Bunch Natural Medical Center at Barangay (village) Maluid may also be penalized with a P1-million fine for selling various items bearing the “Dr. Farrah” label, the FDA said.

Boxes of the products were seized in the manufacturing section of the facility during the 6 p.m. raid conducted by the police and the FDA.

The owner, Dr. Farrah Bunch, and her American husband Jack, were not at the premises during the FDA operation.

Jack Bunch’s sister, Tara, received the search warrant and represented the medical center, which has drawn a huge clientele, many of them cancer patients.

Dr. Bunch advocates what she describes as natural cancer remedies. The Center draws as many as 500 patients a day, the police said.

The FDA first served the center a warning after a July 27 inspection uncovered its inventory of unregistered health products worth P800,000, which were confiscated.

“We again conducted a test-buy and purchased an item which we sent to the Center for Food Research and Administration. We confirmed the owners did not register their products after the first notice. They did not follow regulations,” said Allen Bantolo, acting chief of the FDA regulatory unit.

Dr. Bunch may still proceed and secure Certificates of Product Registration for her products, Bantolo said.

The confiscated health products were brought to the FDA laboratory for further laboratory examination. /jpv