The World Health Organisation (WHO) has praised the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for ‘commendable regulatory action’ in recalling entire batches of contaminated cough syrups and closing down the syrup section of a local pharmaceutical company which manufactured and exported the adulterated products to different countries.
“Thank you, DRAP, Pakistan, for commendable regulatory action regarding the recall of contaminated cough syrups. Fortunately, there were no recorded casualties this time. Effective regulatory collaboration at play,” Rutendo Kuwana, Team Lead, Incidents and Substandard/falsified medical products at the WHO, said in his message on the microblogging platform X.
Following a global medical products alert by the World Health Organisation (WHO) regarding the contaminated cough syrups produced by a Pakistani company, the DRAP recalled all the batches of liquid medicine and sent the samples for the detection of Ethylene Glycol and Diethylene Glycol.
In its medical alert, the WHO said that five different syrup and suspension medicines were initially detected in Maldives and Pakistan and notified the WHO on November 8, 2023, adding that some of the affected products have also been seen in Belize, Fiji and Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
“The five products are ALERGO Syrup, EMIDONE Suspension, MUCORID Syrup, ULCOFIN Suspension and ZINCELL Syrup. A total of 23 batches of these products are affected. The stated manufacturer of all the affected products was Pharmix Laboratories (Pvt.) Ltd. Pakistan,” the WHO alert said.
DRAP officials said they were trying to improve surveillance and promote good manufacturing practices by the local pharmaceutical industry to ensure the safety of the patients and vowed to take strict regulatory and legal action against companies endangering people’s lives.
