Male: Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) has instructed not to use some batches of cough syrups for children manufactured in India. The ban is on drugs manufactured by Maiden Pharmaceutical Limited in Haryana.
In a statement, MFDA said that the children’s cough syrups manufactured by India’s Maiden Pharmaceuticals has been contaminated with unsafe amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol. Under instructions of WHO, MFDA had banned the use of four cough syrups produced by Maiden Pharmaceuticals during last December. They are;
- Promethazine Oral Solution, Lot Number: ML21-202
- Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Lot Number: ML21-199
- Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, Lot Number: ML21-203
- Magrip N Cold Syrup, Lot Number: ML21-198
In an announcement, the MFDA said Gambia had reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) that the children’s cough syrups manufactured by Maiden Pharmaceutical Limited were contaminated with substances called “diethylene glycol” and “ethylene glycol”.
While the matter has been brought to MFDA’s attention, the authority has deemed the medicines unsafe to use. The drugs are not on the list of drugs allowed to be imported and sold in the Maldives. However, the MFDA has warned of the possibility of the drug having been imported into the Maldives by prescription or otherwise.
As a precautionary measure, the MFDA will continue to check imported drugs at ports, MFDA said. Any information about the banned medicines should be shared with the authority, they said. On 5th October 2022, WHO issued an alert against four India-made cough syrups which caused death of 66 children in Gambia. Web Desk
