India flags testing lapses at pharma firms after 17 cough syrup deaths

Regulator asks states to ensure tests of medicines; Gujarat state finds deficiencies at two other cough syrup makers

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A state health official sticks a notice on Tuesday outside the Chennai factory of Sresan Pharmaceutical factory whose Coldrif cough syrup has been linked to the deaths of 17 children in Madhya Pradesh. - REUTERS

(REUTERS)

Indian pharmaceutical firms failed to follow rules that every batch of medicinal ingredients is tested, the country’s drug regulator said on Wednesday, following the deaths of 17 children aged under five linked to toxic cough syrups.

An advisory by the drugs controller general of India, Rajeev Raghuvanshi, said the regulator had carried out checks at factories and found serious lapses.

In the advisory dated October 7 and posted on a government website, Raghuvanshi did not name any companies or the number of them that were found to have flouted rules, but said the inspections had been carried out at firms whose drugs had earlier been found to be below standard quality.