The public is outraged over the tragic deaths of children linked to contaminated cough syrup, demanding accountability and expressing distrust in the government and pharmaceutical companies. Many call for stricter regulations and better oversight in healthcare, linking the issue to corruption and regulatory failures.

Government of India

Pharmaceutical Companies

Healthcare Regulatory Authorities

Orwellisright

Sources and further information available: [https://sayacare.in/blogs/cough-syrup-or-killer-the-madhya-pradesh-rajasthan-tragedy-explained](https://sayacare.in/blogs/cough-syrup-or-killer-the-madhya-pradesh-rajasthan-tragedy-explained)

dhruvg001

" However, after initial blacklisting, the company was allowed back into the tender process. Even though government labs exist, RMSCL reportedly relies on private labs for drug testing, which has raised concerns about the consistency and reliability of quality checks.

According to the investigative findings, if one private lab declares a drug substandard, the company gets the same drug cleared from another lab, and then, with the collusion of officials, secures fresh supply contracts." --  WHAT THE FUCK!!!

Long live these motherfucking bureaucrats, legislatures, executive and judiciary. I really want to dip these aasshats in septic tanks again and again.

sas8184

ExaminationFail25

You can sell anything in thing country just call it ayurvedic or herbal. Try questioning them and you would be called anti-national and someone with no regards with our culture &amp; heritage.


Also , remember how patanjali scammed people with CORONIL and no action happened against them.

UnicornWithTits

Head_Opportunity2651

This is not new in India..  there is a book" the truth pill "which mentions several events decade after decade relating to cough syrup using anti freeze and all... This is standard practice despite regulations and all. Drug makers will kill you and children for some money. Corruption is embedded in every cell here. Your life don't matter

GetGodmodeon

[deleted]

hustlingProgrammer

This is also the case of most packaged spices sold in our country but that have been blacklisted by foreign custom departments due to the risk of harmful additives in them.

Raj_Valiant3011

But hey, it cures the cough once and for all. The probably advertise it as such.

TootaFoota

That's the reason why people don't buy generic medicines in this country. Even though on paper they should be better the  no quality tests and controls.

DRAGONUV7890

Why are they protecting the same corporation they are trying to expose? name the damn syrup!

Forsaken-Sundae4797

Koi baat nahi, hindu rastra ke liye toh itna karna padta hai. Please ignore and move on with life. Consider this as a sacrifice. All hail Modi. 
JSR

ratinvirgo

7eaio

Government announce karti hai, yakeen karneka nahi

The US FDA was started because of an incident with the same adulterant. Elixir of sulfanilamide, 1937.

Bikrdude

This is incredibly sad. Imagine your child is sick and you give them medicine….your child says it tastes yucky but you know kids don’t like cough syrup so you tell them it’s for their own good. Then it kills them. These parents will never recover.

GrannyMayJo

I woman I worked with complained that in the US she has to go to the doctor to get a prescription for antibiotics for a head cold (virus!!) because in India, where she grew up, you can go to the pharmacy and they give you the antibiotics without a prescription. Do you know India has an epidemic of multidrug resistant bacteria circulating? Now, I wonder why? /s

Hola0722

How about proper regulations and oversight instead to make sure it doesn't happen again? Banning cough syrup seems overkill.

Gullible-Hose4180

*a specific brand of cough syrup.

Goddamn clickbait BS

TuckerCarlsonsOhface

Headline is misleading. They didn't ban all cough syrup. They only banned a specific brand where testing confirmed it had DEG in it.

matjoeman

Scary. India is the supplier of choice for meds in many countries like the US.

Riptide360

The catch-22 is what appears to be happening when outsourcing for less expensive medicine and the outsourcing is a country that has less than ideal medical manufacturing processes.   It is almost amusing that the Nat'l government says - but that one province has been controlled - like saying one State in US will stop XYZ but other 49 remain uncontrolled.   POPPY-COCK

BarCompetitive7220

Is there any good news around the world anyday?

embarrassing_doodle

It is beyond stupid that the Indian government is allowing this to continue to happen.  They are a global pharmaceutical giant and you don't want people to lose trust.

astanton1862

internetlad

The same place that lets you buy antibiotics willy-nilly?

Electricengineer

The fact that there's a "permissible limit" of this highly toxic solvent is disturbing.

PurpleSailor

I recall same thing happening a few years ago. A number of children died in Africa and Indonesia IIRC. Cough medicine was also contaminated with diethylene glycol. How can this happen again? Did the authorities not learn a lesson from this disaster?

drteddy70

Make a child, see them cough, watch them unable to sleep at night, parent has to take leave from work, kid gets more uneasy. Cough &amp; fever increases, cough syrup goes in.

Calling it obsession is wrong. We don’t have that comfort of letting child recover naturally.

Rosesh_I_Sarabhai

Not just that, but potions and pills for every thing. Headache? Disprin. Cold? Septilin.

MyDespatcherDyKabel

It’s very convenient for the media to reduce this tragedy to an “India’s cough syrup obsession” and blame parents, as if they’re some reckless psychos giving random syrups to sick kids.

What’s much harder - and far more important - is real investigative journalism:

 Expose the companies manufacturing fake medicines. Look at how firms like Kasyon Pharma can have dozens of failed samples, yet their products still find space in government hospitals.

 Trace their political connections - which parties shield them? Who allows them to keep operating despite repeated violations?

 Investigate the doctors prescribing unnecessary medicines, often influenced or outright bribed by medical representatives.

But all that requires courage and effort. So instead, the media takes the easy route: blame parents, frame it as “obsession,” and ignore the rot in the system.

AndyMac11

&gt;A generic cough syrup manufactured by a pharmaceutical company for the Rajasthan government has led to the deaths of two children and at least 10 others falling ill in the state over the past two weeks, officials said. A doctor who took a dose of the syrup to demonstrate that it was safe was also knocked unconscious and was found in his car eight hours later.

one_brown_jedi

The drug company accidentally sent the dose for druggists to the pharmacy.

mudjawd

&gt; The children who died were aged two and five.


&gt; At least 10 other children across Rajasthan have fallen ill.


&gt; 22 batches of the syrup have been banned.


**This goverment and people think that banning such medicine makes the problem go away.**


**Are Indians just Lab Rats to the rest of the world &amp; pharma companies to test drugs??** 


**Who approves this drug in the first place?? How did it reach the market without any trials??**


**Who justified &amp; approved it's usage? Why are we not investigating them??**

TPChocolate

Bro this is a generic version, meaning an off patent drug made by an Indian company in in some shady factory with an audit from Indian Drug Inspectors cleared by the Govt purchasing agency ( state), now figure the maths!!

Scary-Astronomer6530

What about consequences for the killing 2 children?

ChemistryNew3404

Indira allows Cipla and the Indian pharma industry to make generics and become an export powerhouse.


Mercantiles cash in, abuse it, create low effort models and make Indian pharma industry look bad to the world.

And now consumers resort to pseudoscientific AYUSH stuff which does nothing but introduce a slow undetected death in the long run.

/nopunchline

Business-Active-1143

Didn’t gvt relax the penalty for such shitty medicine from jail term to 2lakh fine?

kochapi

Most of the generic drugs are manufactured in Gujrat and that too in shady 1 bhk or godown. Does anyone remember the syrup or drop which led to the death of &lt;100  kids death and Indian government denied charges as they paid Modi in electoral bonds? 
Nothing will happen here also. 
JSR

Mo_h

this is so sad. What's the value of life in India when something as simple as a cough syrup can kill you.

thebaldmaniac

Top-Bend-330

And people say "wE wAnT gEnEriC mEdiCiNes" 

I have also consume Cough Syrup for a very long time from my childhood but it doesn't harm me

Ill_Nobody_7589

The problem is much deeper &amp; complex. There are three challenges:  
  
1. Poor-enforcement &amp; overall regulatory structure  
2. Commercial Nature of Trade (Pharma incentivises doctors, doctors prescribe it to patients)  
3. Archaic rules, which many of these companies find loopholes around and operate.  
  
I have worked closely on Pharma distribution &amp; back in the day when the Gambia incident was reported, I spent time going to multiple different factories around India. It was quite heartening to see the state of affairs. There are three types of governance through which most of Indian factories are regulated:  
  
1. **Schedule M**: This is the Indian guidelines. Recently redone, but nothing to solve for enforcement  
2. **WHO-GMP**: Relatively better; however, enforcement needs to be better  
3. **USFDA or EU-GMP**: Much tighter control and monitoring give you a sense, I could walk into a Schedule M factory wearing plain clothes and even be offered the opportunity to taste the cough syrups being made right next to me in a large Pan. On the other hand was EU-GMP, getting into the plant required multiple permissions; I had to change into protective outer clothing every time I entered from one area into another.

Just banning the medicine is not the solution. While the above problem is more prevalent in smaller pharma companies, my challenge with  bigger pharma companies is the ability to flout regulations and put out products in the market. For e.g. a lot of these cough syrups (or cocktails) are not even effective for kids. Just plain honey would do it. But guess what, these continue to be prescribed by the doctors. Good doctors most likely will advise you to simply power through the ailment, but then parents push the doctors &amp; then doctors write the syrups.

The answer to this problem first lies in awareness. Just **DO NOT GIVE COUGH SYRUP to your KID at the drop of a hat. Let your kid power through that cold / cough bout (it is usually self-limiting) and if the issue persists, then speak to your paediatrician.** And if your physician recommends a cough syrup, Do definitely look at the ingredients - a simple google search would tell you a lot about what you are giving to your kid.

Environmental_Meet90

Why is no one arrested yet?? I am sure big politicians or business man involved that’s why Gov does not do anything. 

Such a sh*t hypocrite Gov.

Particular_Leg_5956

A tragedy involving contaminated cough syrup has led to the deaths of at least 25 children in Madhya Pradesh, prompting police to arrest several individuals and raising concerns over the regulatory framework surrounding pediatric medicines in the country.

Cough Syrup Contamination and Child Health Crisis in India

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