India's Himachal Pradesh is now planning to take action, including a criminal case, against the drug manufacturer from the state, Digital Vision, whose cough syrup "Coldbest-PC" has allegedly caused the deaths of nine infants in Jammu and one in Haryana.
Laboratory tests of the syrup carried out at the federally-funded premier Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh detected a poisonous substance, diethylene glycol, in the syrup which causes kidney failure.
The federal and the state governments are now waiting for a confirmation report on the initial findings from the Regional Drug Testing Laboratory in Chandigarh for punitive action against the drug manufacturer. Himachal Pradesh, in the meanwhile, has suspended the company's license to manufacture the cough syrup.
Digital Vision has, however, denied that the cough syrup could have caused the deaths of the infants.
The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 provides for 10 years to life in jail and a monetary penalty of approximately $13,970 or three times the value of drug that’s confiscated.
Between December 2019 to January 2020, nearly 17 children were affected due to the consumption of this particular brand of cough syrup in the Ramnagar area of Jammu and Kashmir, nine of whom lost their lives due to acute renal failure. The consumption of Coldbest-PC was found to be the common denominator in all of the cases, government officials told the media.
In a report presented by a parliamentary panel, it was mentioned that only 82,000 samples were tested in 2017-18, which it said was inadequate.