Cough syrup not faulty, pharma firm's 19 drugs banned as precaution: Rajasthan health minister

Jodhpur, Oct 4 (PTI) Rajasthan Health Minister Gajendra Singh Khimsar on Saturday reiterated that the cough syrup that was alleged to have led to the death of three children in the state was safe and not faulty.

"œWe got the medicine checked twice. First our drug controller tested it and then the RMSCL (Rajasthan Medical Services Corporation Limited) tested it. Both test reports did not find it faulty," the minister claimed at a press conference at the Circuit House in Jodhpur.

Khimsar claimed that the three deceased children were comorbid and that they were administered the cough syrup by the parents on their own, not prescribed to them by doctors.

"œIf we give children the medicine prescribed for adults, it will obviously have harmful effects on them," he said, adding that a two-year-old child cannot take it.

Later, in a statement issued to the press, he said that in all the three death cases, preliminary investigations did not confirm that the medicine -- Dextromethorphan Hydrobromide (DXM HBr) -- was prescribed or administered by a doctor.

On clean chit to Kaysons Pharma, the company that supplies the medicine, Khimsar said that it was given after the reports came clean.

When asked about the ban on 19 medicines produced by Kaysons Pharma and 40 of its medicines failing the quality test earlier, Khimsar said it was done as a precaution.

He said that a second committee has been set up to check all the medicines of the company and assured that the government is open to testing these medicines by any source if people have doubts.

The minister stated that 1.33 lakh people have taken the medicine since its approval and around 14,000 people took it in the last one month.

"œThis medicine was being prescribed by doctors at primary health centres, community health centres and district hospitals but no death (barring that of the three children) from it has been reported so far," he said.

Khimsar said Kaysons Pharma has had 10,119 samples tested since 2012 and out of these, 42 samples were found to be sub-standard so far. During the Covid period, 39 samples of one medicine failed and three other samples were found sub-standard, he said.

"œNevertheless, as a precaution, the department has suspended the use and distribution of all 19 medicines supplied by this company until further orders," he said. PTI COR RUK RUK