On 11 January 2023, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended against the usage of two cough syrup made by Noida based Marion Biotech.
In a medical product alert on Wednesday, the WHO labeled the cough syrups as "substandard" and said that they "failed to meet quality standards or specifications and are therefore out of specification."
The products are AMBRONOL syrup and DOK-1 Max syrup, manufactured by Noida based Marion Biotech. The WHO said that the company has failed to provide them with guarantees on the safety and quality of the products.
This medical alert comes after these two products had been identified and reported by Uzbekistan to the UN on 22 December 2022, after allegedly being the cause of death of 18 children.
According to WHO, laboratory analysis of the cough syrups taken by national quality control laboratories of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan showed that both syrups contained large amounts of diethylene glycol and /or ethylene glycol as contaminants. These two contaminants cause vomiting, convulsions, affect the circulatory system and cause acute renal failure. There shouldn't even be a slight trace of these two chemicals in the syrups.
On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration department suspended those products. Gautam Buddh Nagar Drug inspector, Vaibhav Babbar, said, "We have suspended the production license of Marion Biotech company after not providing enough documents, show-cause notice was also given by the state licensing authority depending upon the documents asked during the inspection which they didn’t provide.”
∎
