Owner of Sresan Pharma arrested after 17 children die from toxic cough syrup

Indian police have arrested the owner of Sresan Pharmaceutical Manufacturer, the company linked to the deaths of at least 17 children in Madhya Pradesh, a senior police officer told Reuters on Thursday.

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. All deaths have been linked to Sresan Pharma’s Coldrif syrup, which has been banned in several parts of India following a test last Thursday that confirmed the presence of the chemical.

1. Ranganathan, the owner of the Tamil Nadu-based company that manufactured the syrup, was arrested on Wednesday in Chennai and will be produced in court, a senior police officer said. After his court appearance, Ranganathan will be moved from his home state to Chhindhwara in Madhya Pradesh, Chhindhwara Superintendent of Police Ajay Pandey told Reuters.

Under Indian law, drugmakers must test each batch of raw materials and the final product. Since 2023, exports of cough syrup require additional testing at government-mandated laboratories following deaths of more than 10 children in Gambia, Uzbekistan, and Cameroon linked to Indian syrups.

The World Health Organization has stated that the recent case highlights a “regulatory gap” in India’s screening of medicines sold domestically and warned that some exports could have taken place unofficially.

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