WHO says contaminated cough syrup made in India found in Western Pacific

Contaminated cough syrup made by an Indian firm has been discovered within the Marshall Islands and Micronesia, the World Well being Organisation (WHO) stated on Tuesday, after a spate of kid deaths linked to different syrups in some international locations final yr.

The WHO assertion didn’t say whether or not any youngsters within the Marshall Islands or Micronesia had fallen sick.

Nevertheless it stated samples from a batch of imported cough syrup, with the product title Guaifenesin syrup TG syrup, had been contaminated with unacceptable quantities of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, that are poisonous to people when consumed and may show deadly. The contamination was recognized by Australia’s regulator, the Therapeutic Items Administration (TGA).

The brand new alert follows three comparable warnings issued final yr by the WHO about contaminated cough syrups for youngsters. These syrups, made by completely different producers in India and Indonesia, have been linked to the deaths of greater than 300 youngsters – primarily aged below 5 – from acute kidney damage in Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan.

The acknowledged producer of the medicines within the newest alert was India’s QP Pharmachem Ltd, primarily based in Punjab and the marketer of the product was Trillium Pharma, primarily based in India’s Haryana, the WHO stated.

Neither QP Pharmachem nor Trillium have supplied ensures to WHO on the protection and high quality of those merchandise, the company stated within the assertion.

QP Pharmachem’s managing director Sudhir Pathak advised Reuters that it had examined a pattern from the exported batch following a latest question from the native state drug regulator.

“We discovered it passable and the regulator discovered it passable too,” he stated.

Pathak additionally stated the product is distributed in India too and the corporate has not obtained any complaints thus far.

Pathak stated QP Pharmachem had permission from the Indian authorities to export 18,000 bottles of the syrup solely to Cambodia. It was unclear how the product ended up within the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.

Trillium Pharma didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The WHO stated international locations wanted to step up surveillance to seek out extra contaminated merchandise.

Its head of substandard medicines, Rutendo Kuwana, advised Reuters earlier this month that it was working with international locations to assist take a look at medicines when requested to take action, after issuing a worldwide name to motion in January to assist stop extra deaths.

“We’re within the means of attempting to gather samples and take a look at them,” he stated.