The World Health Organization announced on Monday that a batch of common cold syrup produced by an Indian manufacturer was contaminated. This is the latest in a string of alerts the organization has issued over unsafe drugs coming from India.
The syrup, known by the brand name Cold Out, was made by Fourrts (India) Laboratories for Dabilife Pharma, according to the United Nations agency, and it was found in Iraq in a batch that exceeded permitted limits for the pollutants diethylene and ethylene glycol.
According to WHO’s medical product alert, the batch had 2.1% of ethylene glycol and 0.25 percent of diethylene glycol, both of which are above the permissible safety level of 0.10%.
The manufacturer and marketer haven’t given WHO any guarantees about the product’s safety and quality, the agency stated. After-hours attempts for comments from Reuters were not immediately answered by the corporations.
The warning regarding Cold Out is the most recent one regarding tainted cough syrups that are distributed all over the world in recent months. At least five of the syrups under investigation are made by Indian companies.
Indian-made cough syrups were blamed for at least 89 child fatalities in the Gambia and Uzbekistan last year. Infractions at Riemann Labs, whose cough medication was connected to child fatalities in Cameroon, were also discovered by Indian authorities.
The Marion Biotech manufacturing license had been revoked by the Indian regulator, who had also detained several of the company’s employees. Marion Biotech had sold the syrups to Uzbekistan.
While examinations by an Indian government laboratory identified no contaminants in the pharmaceuticals, the business engaged in the Gambia, Maiden Pharmaceuticals, has disputed that its products were to blame for the deaths in the nation.
