Drugs made using spurious material not yet identified

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, August 12

The state drug regulatory authorities are yet to identify the number and type of formulations, including cough syrups, which were manufactured using two adulterated batches of excipient propylene glycol (PG) by Kala Amb-based Digital Vision in September 2019. The company’s cough syrup Cofset-AT had caused renal failure in a two-year-old girl from Baddi.

“We are in the process of identifying various formulations, including cough syrups, manufactured by Digital Vision using the two batches of adulterated excipient PG in September 2019. The firm’s management will be directed to withdraw all such products from the market,” said Sunny Kaushal, Assistant Drugs Controller.

He added that since the products were manufactured nearly a year ago, very little stock would have been left with the stockiest now.

State Drugs Controller Navneet Marwaha said, “An investigation at the manufacturer’s level is underway and the relevant record has been secured to trace the genesis of this adulterated excipient. We are also trying to trace the supply chain from Baddi where this cough syrup was sold to the affected girl”.

The firm, whose Coldbest-PC cough syrup had claimed the lives of 12 infants in Udhampur in February this year, was already facing closure after its licence was withdrawn. The same adulterant DEG was found in the Cofset-AT syrup.

The authorities claimed that they had drawn 26 samples of various formulations in March after the emergence of the first case but none was found adulterated.

The firm management had been bailed out and investigations into inter-state purchases were put on hold due to the Covid breakout, said Sirmaur SP Ajay Krishan Sharma.