Himachal closely monitors recall of cough syrup

Manufactured in Kala Amb, it claimed lives of 12 infants in Udhampur last month

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, February 18

The state drug regulatory authorities are strictly monitoring the recall of “Coldbest-PC Syrup” from the market as its consumption claimed lives of 12 infants last month in the Ramnagar area of Udhampur district in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Kala Amb-based manufacturer Digital Vision has been directed to send six-hourly reports of withdrawing the cough syrup from the market to the State Drugs Controller. As many as 5,500 bottles of this syrup of the controversial September 2019 batch meant for children had been sold in several states, including Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal and some in the North-East.

State Drugs Controller Navneet Marwaha said the firm’s manufacturing licence has been withdrawn and as an added precaution they were coordinating with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) officials to reach out to the end-users of this cough syrup and unused syrup bottles have been withdrawn from as far as Kanpur and Saharanpur.

Notably, the presence of an impurity, diethylene glycol, was detected in the cough syrup and this was found to be present in the solvent propylene glycol (PG), used in the syrup. The origin of PG has been traced to Chennai-based Manali Petrochemicals. The solvent was sold to two Delhi-based traders, who further sold it to a trader in Ambala and from there it found its way to the Kala Amb-based Digital Vision pharmaceutical unit.

Marwaha said the PG was not manufactured in Himachal and it was added as a solvent to the cough syrup. Since the testing of the PG was not carried out at the pre-manufacturing stage, the presence of diethylene glycol went undetected. It is known to cause renal failure and other health ailments.

The state drug control administration swung into action after the issue came to their notice on Saturday. Acting swiftly, a team of state and central Drugs Control Administration had descended on the unit to examine and confiscate the records pertaining to the manufacture of the syrup.

The unit has been manufacturing this cough syrup for the last 8 to 10 years, said Marwaha. No such issue had come to the fore prior to this case.