Cough syrup deaths: Tamil Nadu shuts down firm that made Coldrif

The Tamil Nadu government on Monday stated that it has revoked the manufacturing licence of Sresan Pharmaceutical Manufacturer and shut down the company, reported PTI.

The action came after the deaths of 22 children in the past month linked to the consumption of Coldrif cough syrup manufactured by the company, which is situated in Tamil Nadu’s Kancheepuram district.

“Orders have been given to conduct a detailed inspection of other drug manufacturing companies located in Tamil Nadu,” PTI quoted the state government as saying on Monday.

The deaths have been reported from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Several children, who had been suffering from fever and cold, consumed the Coldrif syrup, resulting in vomiting and difficulty urinating.

The first death was recorded on September 2.

On October 2, the Tamil Nadu director of drugs control found that the Coldrif samples were not of standard quality. Three days later, Madhya Pradesh also reported that one sample of Coldrif had 48.6% of diethylene glycol in it.

The permissible limit of diethylene glycol as an impurity is 0.1%. However, drug officials Scroll spoke to said that the chemical is unsafe even in trace amounts and should ideally be completely absent from an ingestible syrup. Its presence is a serious quality compliance issue, the officials said.

On October 9, the Madhya Pradesh Police arrested the owner of Sresan Pharmaceutical Manufacturer,...

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