18 Jan 2023 • The World Health Organization has issued a warning against using two Indian cough syrups for children, which have been linked to deaths in Uzbekistan. The warning comes just weeks after Uzbekistan claimed that 18 children died after consuming the company's syrup. According to WHO, the Marion Biotech products were "substandard," and the company failed to provide safety guarantees. Following the reports of the deaths in Uzbekistan, India's health ministry ceased operations at the company. Following the reports of the deaths in Uzbekistan, India's health ministry halted production at the company. The food safety department where Marion Biotech is based, suspended the company's production licence earlier this week. According to the WHO alert issued on Thursday, the quality control laboratories of Uzbekistan's health ministry found unacceptable amounts of two contaminants - "diethylene glycol and/or ethylene glycol" in the two cough syrups - Ambronol and Dok-1 Max. Diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol are toxic to humans and, if consumed, can be fatal. Marion Biotech said that it had followed "approved processes" while manufacturing the "syrup in question" and that it did not agree with the WHO's findings that "the residue of ethylene glycol was present in the Doc-1 Max Syrup". The firm also said that 20,000 bottles of 100 ml each of the Doc-1 Max cough syrup "were supplied to the entire geography of Uzbekistan" but that "fatalities have only been reported in one of the geographical locality of Samarkand". It went on to say that after the syrup was recalled, the company received approximately 1,500 bottles, indicating that the "balance" had been consumed without any side effects.

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