New Zealand Warns About Mixing Drug And ‘Wonder' Milk

Bandar Seri Begawan - New Zealand's Food Safety Authority warned Wednesday that people taking the blood-thinning drug Warfarin, which has the trade names Coumadin and Marevan, should not consume a New Zealand made brand of milk or yoghurt popular throughout Asia without consulting medical advisers.

It said the milk brand, made by New Zealand's Fonterra dairy cooperative and marketed to Asian women since 1990 as an aid in fighting the bone disease osteoporosis, could pose "significant health risks" to people taking Warfarin because of the levels of vitamin K it contains, according to a dpa news report.

Fonterra sells the milk brand in 12 countries including Brunei and claimed in May that sales had risen 30 per cent in .Malaysia-after it launched a new formula earlier this year, dpa reported.

Asian markets were targeted initially because an ageing population who did not drink milk in its youth had low calcium levels, which made women susceptible to bone fractures and osteoporosis, dpa reported.

Fonterra launched the product in New Zealand and Australia in May. The Food Safety Authority said tests showed the levels of vitamin K could interfere with the efficacy of Warfarin, and it asked the makers to put a warning on the label of all the relevant milk brand products, dpa reported.

Fonterra said about one per cent of New Zealanders have taken the drug long term and confirmed that "a sudden change in the amount of vitamin K in a Warfarin patient's diet can affect how the medication works". -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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