NEW DELHI : Government laboratories have received around 300 cough syrup samples for quality testing after the embarrassment of toxic syrups causing deaths abroad.
As of 4 July, Central labs in Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ghaziabad (UP), Chandigarh, Gujarat and Jammu had received samples.
On the other hand, government labs in Karnataka, Kerala, Bhopal, Maharashtra, and Uttarakhand, Hyderabad and Guwahati are yet to receive any. The drug regulator has issued an alert to all manufacturers not to over-burden one particular lab for testing.
India, the largest provider of generic drugs globally, exported cough syrups worth $17.6 billion in 2022-23 as against $17 billion in 2021-22. India’s pharma export body Pharmexcil has over 2,000 manufacturers registered with it, and most are manufacturing cough syrups. Queries sent to the health ministry spokesperson did not elicit any response.
