India files criminal case against maker of cough-syrup linked to 14 children deaths

Police in India have launched criminal action against a maker of cough syrup whose product was found to contain dangerous levels of a toxic chemical, after the deaths of 14 children suspected to have consumed contaminated medicine.

- 

Known as the “pharmacy of the world”, India has faced scrutiny for the quality of its pharmaceutical exports, with its cough syrups being linked to child deaths in Cameroon, Gambia and Uzbekistan over the past few years.

A sample of the syrup, ‘Coldrif’, among 19 medicines tested after the deaths in Madhya Pradesh state, contained 46.28 per cent diethylene glycol, far exceeding a permitted level of 0.1 per cent, a state drug laboratory said in a report seen by Reuters.

“The doctor who wrote the prescription has been arrested,” Rajendra Shukla, the state’s deputy chief minister, told news agency ANI.