India changes export policy on cough syrups, government lab certification must

New Delhi, May 23

India on Tuesday amended the export policy with respect to cough syrups saying export consignments would be cleared subject to mandatory certification by government certified labs only.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade under Ministry of Commerce issued a notification on the amendment saying “cough syrups will be permitted for exports subject to export sample being tested and production of certificate of analysis by any of the following labs: Central Drug Laboratory Kolkata, Central Drug Testing Labs, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Regional Drug Testing labs at Chandigarh and Guwahati or any of the NABL accredited state drug testing labs.”

The amendment follows several global alerts involving Indian cough syrups. WHO had last October issued a medical alert involving cough syrups from Sonepat based Maidan Pharma flagging alleged links to over 70 Gambian child deaths; later 18 Uzbek children allegedly died from links to Noida based Marion Biotech. Recently in April WHO issued another alert involving cough syrups made in Punjab and Haryana.