WHO warns of Indian-made contaminated cough medicine sold in Iraq
A Cold Out bottle. Photo: WHO
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday of a contaminated batch of cough medicine found in Iraq and manufactured by an Indian company.
The WHO said that a sample of the syrup medicine, sold as Cold Out, was obtained from one location in Iraq and submitted for laboratory analysis.
The United Nations health agency explained that the sample was found to contain unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol (0.25 percent) and ethylene glycol (2.1 percent) as contaminants. The acceptable safety limit for both ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol is no more than 0.10 percent.
The stated manufacturer of the affected batch of the product is Fourrts (India) Laboratories Private Limited, and the product is stated to be manufactured for Dabilife Pharma Private Limited, according to the WHO.
The health organization illustrated that the stated manufacturer and the marketer have not provided guarantees on the safety and quality of the product so far.
The medicine may have marketing authorizations in other countries or regions. It may also have been distributed through informal markets to other countries, the WHO added.
A report issued earlier by Bloomberg mentioned that the contaminants are lethal to humans in small amounts and played a role in mass child deaths caused by Indian-made cough syrups in Gambia and Uzbekistan last year.
Bloomberg mentioned that it shared the test results of Valisure LLC, an independent US laboratory, with the WHO as well as Iraqi and Indian officials on July 8.
The report illustrated that the WHO found Valisure’s test results to be acceptable and that it will issue an alert if the Iraqi government confirms the product was sold there.
Bloomberg added that it’s the fifth time in a year that testing has found an Indian exporter’s drugs to contain excessive levels of ethylene glycol.