450 bottles of killer syrup seized in Panipat, Ambala

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 18

The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), Haryana, has seized over 450 bottles of Coldbest-PC from Panipat and Ambala Cantonment. Prepared by a manufacturer based in Kala Amb, it is understood to have claimed the lives of 12 infants in the Ramnagar area of Udhampur district.

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The FDA teams have also ordered that the stocks of this drug be recalled from some chemists in Babbain (Kurukshetra), Raipur Rani, Palwal, Yamunanagar, Panipat and Kalka, where the syrup was sold by the Ambala Cantonment distributor for Digital Vision, the Kala Amb manufacturer.

“We have written to dealers across the country where the distributor had supplied over 5,575 bottles of Coldbest-PC syrup purchased from the Kala Amb manufacturer from April 1, 2019, to February 15, 2020. We have asked them to stop its sale and return it to the supplier,” said Ashok Kumar Meena, Commissioner, FDA.

He said samples of the drug taken from various dealers had been sent to the laboratory for testing and its report was awaited.

The stock statement of the distributor, M/s Shiva Medical Hall in Ambala Cantonment, from April 1, 2019, to February 15, 2020, stated that the firm purchased 5,575 bottles of Coldbest-PC syrup from Digital Vision on September 27, 2019.

The firm supplied 1,620 bottles of the drug to PP Laboratories, Palwal, 324 bottles to Shiva Medical Agencies, Ambala Cantonment, 162 bottles each to Padha Medical Hall, Panipat, and Anil Medical Store, Raipur Rani, 50 bottles to Om Medicose, Babbain, 30 bottles each to Rana Medical Hall, Yamunanagar, and Dhanvantri Nursing Home, Kalka.

The drug had also been supplied to three firms in Jammu, two in Saharanpur and one each in Kanpur, Aurangabad, Dehradun, Baddi, Bulandshahr, Vijaywada, Trichy, Ghaziabad and Shillong.

The FDA had swung into action on Sunday after a communication from the State Drugs Controller, Drugs and Food Control Organisation, Jammu, to the State Drugs Controller, Baddi, revealed that diethylene glycol, a toxic substance, had been found in Coldbest-PC, that caused death of infants in Ramnagar.

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