WHO flags contaminated India-made syrup in Iraq

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has flagged a batch of contaminated common cold syrup manufactured by an Indian company, the latest in a series of warnings by the agency about substandard medicines from the country.

The United Nations agency said the batch of the syrup, branded Cold Out, was obtained from a location in Iraq and was submitted for laboratory analysis.

It was manufactured by Fourrts (India) Laboratories Pvt. Ltd for Dabilife Pharma Pvt. Ltd, and had higher than acceptable limit of contaminants diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, WHO said in its medical products alert.

The batch had 0.25% of diethylene glycol and 2.1% of ethylene glycol, when the acceptable safety limit for both is no more than 0.10%, WHO said.

The agency added that the manufacturer and the marketer have not provided guarantees to WHO on the safety and quality of the product.

Cough syrups made in India were linked to deaths of at least 89 children in Gambia and Uzbekistan last year.

The Indian regulator had cancelled the manufacturing licence of Marion Biotech, which had exported the syrups to Uzbekistan, and arrested some of their employees.

The company involved in Gambia, Maiden Pharmaceuticals, has denied that its drugs were responsible for the deaths in the country, and tests by an Indian government laboratory found no toxins in them.