Uzbek cough syrup deaths Samples collected from 15 Noida firms for tests

The incident in Uzbekistan was reported in December 2022, following which Marion Biotech’s licence was cancelled last week.

After the licence of Marion Biotech, a unit that manufactures cough syrup, was cancelled after a spurious batch of the medicine was linked to the death of 18 children in Uzbekistan, the drugs control department of Gautam Budh Nagar has collected samples from 15 other cough medicine manufacturing units .

The licence of Marion Biotech was cancelled last week. (Reuters)

The incident in Uzbekistan was reported in December 2022, following which the company’s licence was cancelled last week.

We have collected samples from the other formulation companies in the district for quality checks. This is a routine annual exercise and was due for this year. We have also inspected the site of all pharma units and we believe that all others are working fine, said Vaibhav Babbar, district drugs inspector.

Officials said in the case of Marion, the adulteration was found in the sweetening agent and not in the chemicals used. The cough syrup that was being produced for sale in Uzbekistan was of a higher concentration, which is not approved for use in children in India.

Read here: Uzbek cough syrup deaths: DCGI issues alert against supplier of Marion Biotech

Officials said there are 15 formulation companies in the district that produce tablets, capsules and syrups. One sample was collected from each of the 15 companies and sent to labs for quality checks. Of them, five samples passed the checks, while the results of the remaining 10 are awaited.