Cough syrup samples taken from over 100 pharmaceutical units across India failed tests for quality control, The Economic Times reported on Tuesday, citing a government report.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation analysed 7,087 batches of cough syrup, of which 353 were labelled as “not of standard quality”. Among the reasons for the batches failing the quality tests was the presence of toxins earlier found in cough syrups associated with the deaths of children in the Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon.

Nine batches were found to have diethylene glycol or ethylene glycol, both of which can cause vomiting, convulsions, problems in the circulatory system and acute renal failure. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation cited unsecured supply chains and testing failures as the reasons why these batches were found to contain the two toxins and failed quality tests, according to The Economic Times.

Both private and government laboratories across the country have been conducting tests after cough syrups manufactured in India were linked to deaths of 141 children across the world, reported the newspaper.

Deaths due to toxic cough syrups manufactured in India first made headlines in October 2022 when the World Health Organization issued a global alert for four such medicines manufactured by the Haryana-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals.

This was after the authorities in The Gambia linked 66 deaths, most of them due to acute kidney failure, to the four medicines.

In December 2022, the World Health Organization recommended not using two cough syrups made by Indian pharmaceutical firm Marion Biotech after Uzbekistan’s health ministry said that 18 children died after consuming the Dok 1 Max syrup manufactured by the company.

Then in August, the World Health Organization issued another alert about a batch of India-made common cold syrup.

Samples from the batch that were obtained in Iraq were found to contain unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminants, the global health body said. This was the fifth time since 2022 that the global health body issued such an alert about syrup medications manufactured in India.

Also read: India’s cough syrup testing regime has a deadly blind spot