SINGAPORE — It remains one of the most infamous scandals in Singapore entertainment history: in 2002, popular actress Andrea De Cruz nearly died after consuming Slim 10, a weight-loss product manufactured in China and sold across Asia, which was later found to contain fenfluramine, a dangerous appetite suppressant linked to severe organ damage.
De Cruz, like many women across the region, had taken the pills to manage her weight. Instead, she developed liver failure so severe that her life was saved only by a liver transplant — donated by her then-boyfriend, fellow actor Pierre Png, who is now her husband. The dramatic rescue and the severity of her condition drew intense media attention in Singapore, turning a personal health crisis into a national story about the dangers of unregulated slimming products.
De Cruz went on to sue the distributor and manufacturer of Slim 10 in a highly publicised legal battle, and was awarded S$900,000 in damages for the pain, suffering and medical expenses she endured. The case exposed the near-total absence of regulation in Asia's dietary supplement market at the time, and became a catalyst for tougher consumer protection rules governing health products in the region.
The scandal thrust De Cruz into the spotlight far beyond her acting career. Before Slim 10, she was known for her television roles, including a 2007 Asian Television Awards Best Actress nomination for her role in Do Not Disturb – Lunch Hour. The ordeal permanently associated her name with the diet-pill scare, and she has spoken over the years about the long road to recovery.
Health crises have continued to shadow her: she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2017 and suffered a brain aneurysm in 2019, both of which she has discussed publicly, building a public image of resilience. In 2021, she and Pierre Png co-founded Tipsy Flamingo, a bar-restaurant that became part of the successful Tipsy Collective in Singapore.
More than two decades on, the Slim 10 case is still cited as a cautionary tale about celebrity-endorsed weight-loss fads and the regulatory gaps they can exploit. For Singapore, it was a watershed moment that helped drag the region's supplement industry toward accountability.
At the time, the scandal dominated headlines across Asia. Slim 10 had been marketed aggressively as a miracle weight-loss product, and De Cruz was far from the only consumer — but her high profile, and the extraordinary fact that her then-boyfriend Pierre Png donated part of his own liver to save her, turned the case into a national drama. The couple later married, and the transplant story became one of Singapore show business's most retold romances.
The S$900,000 damages award was one of the largest of its kind in Singapore at the time, and the litigation forced a public reckoning over who polices the pills sold in pharmacies and on television. Health authorities across the region tightened their scrutiny of slimming products in the years that followed, with fenfluramine-containing products pulled from shelves. De Cruz's ordeal — from a rising television star to a transplant patient fighting for her life — remains the defining image of an era when Asia's supplement market operated with almost no guardrails.