India’s drug regulator has found that a cough syrup and an anti-allergy syrup made by Norris Medicines to be toxic, according to a government report seen by Reuters.
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation has also found three batches of COLD OUT syrup made by Fourrts (India) Laboratories contaminated with the toxins diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG), according to its list of “not of standard quality/spurious/adulterated/misbranded” drugs for August uploaded on its website.
The affected companies were yet to respond to the findings at the time of publishing this report.
Indian regulators have been conducting inspections on drug makers after cough syrups from the country were linked to at least 89 child deaths in the Gambia and Uzbekistan in 2022.
Already, the manufacturing licences of QP Pharmachem Ltd, Maiden Pharmaceuticals and Marion Biotech Pvt. Ltd, whose products were linked to the child deaths were suspended and their exports halted earlier this year.
In new regulations introduced to reign in on dangerous drugs, India made it mandatory for companies to obtain a certificate of analysis from a government laboratory before exporting products.
