India arrests owner of cough syrup company linked to deaths of 17 children

Indian police have arrested the owner of Sresan Pharmaceutical Manufacturer, the cough syrup company linked to the deaths of at least 17 children in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

The children, all under five years of age, died in the past month after consuming cough medicine containing toxic diethylene glycol in quantities nearly 500 times the permissible limit.

The deaths were all linked to Sresan Pharma's 'Coldrif' syrup, which has been banned in several parts of India after a test confirmed the presence of the chemical last Thursday.

S. Ranganathan, the owner of the Tamil Nadu state-based company that manufactured the syrup, was arrested on Wednesday in Chennai and will be produced in court, said a senior police officer.

After his court appearance, Ranganathan will be moved from his home state to the city of Chhindhwara in Madhya Pradesh, Chhindhwara Superintendent of Police Ajay Pandey told Reuters.

By law, Indian drugmakers must test each batch of raw materials and the final product.

Exports of cough syrup require another layer of tests at government-mandated laboratories since 2023, after the deaths of over 10 children in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon were linked to Indian syrups.

The World Health Organisation has also said that the recent case highlights a "regulatory gap" in India’s screening of medicines being sold domestically, and warned that some exports could have taken place unofficially.

Indian authorities have this week also asked people to avoid two other locally sold syrups, Respifresh and RELIFE, made by Gujarat state-based Shape Pharma and Rednex Pharmaceuticals, after tests found they too contained the same toxic chemical. Shape and Rednex did not respond to requests for comment.

Known as the "pharmacy of the world", India is the world's third-largest drug producer by volume after the US and China.

The country supplies 40 per cent of generic medicines used in the US, and more than 90 per cent of all medicines in many African nations.