BHOPAL/CHENNAI, Oct. 5 — The governments of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have banned the sale of Coldrif cough syrup following its suspected connection to the deaths of at least 14 children in the two states, officials confirmed on Saturday.
Madhya Pradesh authorities said laboratory tests found that samples of the syrup contained 48.6 percent diethylene glycol (DEG), a highly toxic chemical known to cause acute kidney failure and death when ingested.
In Tamil Nadu, officials from the state Food Safety and Drug Administration Department said samples collected from Sresan Pharma, the Chennai-based manufacturer of Coldrif, were found to be adulterated. “The firm has been instructed to stop production immediately,” an official from the Tamil Nadu FDA said.
The inspection followed a request from the Madhya Pradesh government after reports emerged of multiple child fatalities in Chhindwara district. Samples of Coldrif syrup were collected from Sresan Pharma’s manufacturing premises in Kanchipuram for further testing.
Earlier, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had reported that six samples it tested were free of diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG). Similarly, Madhya Pradesh’s Food Safety and Drug Administration had said that of 13 samples collected, three tested so far were also initially found to be DEG-free.
However, officials said new results received late on October 3 contradicted those findings. “The latest test results show diethylene glycol levels beyond the permissible limit,” one official noted.
A multidisciplinary team comprising experts from the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), NEERI, CDSCO, and AIIMS–Nagpur is continuing to examine various samples and other factors to determine the exact cause of the children’s deaths in Chhindwara.
Meanwhile, the CDSCO has launched risk-based inspections at pharmaceutical manufacturing units across six states — Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra — to identify quality control lapses and strengthen safety protocols.
“The inspections, which began on Friday, are meant to identify gaps that could lead to drug quality failures and recommend corrective steps to prevent such incidents,” the Union Health Ministry said in a statement.
In Kerala, the state Drugs Control Department has also suspended the sale of Coldrif syrup after reports from other states flagged concerns over one of its batches. “We have taken immediate precautionary action following alerts from Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu,” Kerala Health Minister Veena George said on Saturday.
Further test results and the final report from the expert committee are awaited.
