The Great Vitamin Swindle
July 1, 2003
Adrian Batten* MISTER Sampurno, head of Indonesia's Food & Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM), whose job it is to protect the nation from bogus or dangerous drugs, nutritional supplements and "natural" medicines of one kind or another, has been a busy man of late.
On May 23 he ordered the recall of 78 unregistered traditional local medicines and on May 5, in a major blow to the reputation
*The author is a Southeast Asia-based writer.