The Centre also asked drug controllers to ensure a robust vendor qualification system, instructing them to use raw materials from reliable sources only. After reports of 20 child deaths in Madhya Pradesh due to the consumption of contaminated cough syrup, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) on Wednesday ordered drug controllers of all the states and Union territories to take measures to ensure testing and monitoring the use or release of any batch of medicine in the market.
The drug regulator’s order came after 20 children lost their lives in Madhya Pradesh while undergoing treatment for kidney failure following the consumption of the ‘contaminated’ Coldrif cough syrup.
The CDSCO took note of the recent child deaths in Chhindwara and said that the directorate has, from time to time, pressed on the importance of testing raw materials, including the excipients, before their use in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical formulations.
The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday evening sealed the pharma unit that was producing the now-banned cough syrup. Meanwhile, a special investigation team (SIT) of the Madhya Pradesh police also visited the company’s registered office in Chennai as well as its manufacturing unit in Kancheepuram as part of its probe into the child deaths.
Additionally, the Tamil Nadu government also warned of initiating criminal action against the Chennai-based firm on Wednesday. It issued a second notice against the drug manufacturer for the alleged presence of diethylene glycol in the Coldrif cough syrup and asked why criminal action should not be taken, said state health and family welfare minister Ma Subramanian.
