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October 12, 2022

Medical Product Alert: Unsafe Cough Syrup

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a Medical Product Alert:

“This WHO Medical Product Alert refers to four substandard products, identified in The Gambia and reported to WHO in September 2022. Substandard medical products are products that fail to meet either their quality standards or specifications and are, therefore ‘out of specification’.” The WHO have identified four over-the-counter cough syrups as unsafe:

  • Promethazine Oral Solution
  • Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup
  • Makoff Baby Cough Syrup
  • Magrip N Cold Syrup

To date, the manufacturer (Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited, Haryana, India) has not provided guarantees to the WHO on the safety and quality of these products. Laboratory analysis of samples of these cough syrups have identified unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminants. These four products have been sold in The Gambia, but they may have been distributed to neighboring countries. In The Gambia, over the past few months, 66 children have died due to acute kidney injury, which may have been caused by these cough syrups.

Please check your medications at home and remove any of these cough syrups from Maiden Pharmaceuticals.

For more information:

https://www.who.int/news/item/05-10-2022-medical-product-alert-n-6-2022-substandard-(contaminated)-paediatric-medicines