[1] There have been poisonings in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Marshall Islands, Pakistan, Panama, The Gambia, India (twice), Uzbekistan, and Cameroon between 1992 and 2022, due to contaminated cough syrup and other medications that incorporated inexpensive diethylene glycol instead of glycerine.
For example, Michael L. Bennish, an American pediatrician who works in developing countries, had been volunteering in Bangladesh as a physician and had noticed a number of deaths that seemed to coincide with the distribution of the government-issued cough syrup.
In response, Bennish smuggled bottles of the syrup in his suitcase when returning to the United States, allowing pharmaceutical laboratories in Massachusetts to identify the poisonous diethylene glycol, which can appear very similar to the less dangerous glycerine.
Sudhir Pathak, managing director of QP Pharmachem, claimed that the batch of 18,346 bottles had been exported to Cambodia after obtaining all necessary regulatory approvals and that he was unaware of how the product had ended up in the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.
[4] In December 2012, toxic cough syrup led to a death toll of between 16 and 30 in Gujranwala, while in November of that year, at least 19 individuals in Lahore suffered the same fate.
[7] When Panama-based Medicom received the product from a Spanish trader, it changed the name to "glycerine" and the expiration date to four years before selling it to the government of Panama.
[10] In October 2022, the WHO announced a link between four paediatric cough syrups from one Indian pharmaceutical company and the deaths of 66 children in The Gambia from kidney failure.
[15] In December 2022, Uzbekistan's health ministry said that 18 children died from renal problems and acute respiratory disease after drinking cough syrup manufactured by Indian drug maker Marion Biotech.
[17] Sources told Reuters that Marion purchased industrial-grade propylene glycol as an ingredient from Maya Chemtech India, which is not licensed to sell pharmaceutical-grade materials.
WHO testing on June 27, 2023, revealed alarming levels of diethylene glycol in Naturcold, reaching as high as 28.6% – over 200 times the acceptable limit, which should not exceed 0.1%.
This highly toxic solvent, normally used in air-conditioners and fridges, can lead to severe symptoms, including acute kidney injury and even death if ingested.
[20][21] The World Health Organization (WHO) is addressing the global threat of toxic cough syrups that have caused the deaths of more than 300 children across multiple countries in 2022 and 2023.
He cautioned that the presence of contaminated medicines could persist for several years, as warehouses may still contain barrels of adulterated propylene glycol.