‘Toxic’ cough syrup: Tyno manufactured under fake label, say officials

No poisonous material found in active ingredients, lab tests to continue.

LAHORE:

A ‘toxic’ cough syrup, which claimed 17 lives in Lahore, may have been manufactured by unregistered companies using the label of Reko Pharma, investigators revealed on Wednesday.

The deaths occurred over the weekend after 17 people, mostly drug addicts, consumed the cough syrup, Tyno.

Officials of the investigation team formed by the Punjab chief minister further revealed to The Express Tribune that they suspect that these unregistered manufacturers used opium in the cough syrup to lure drug addicts into buying it.

“We are trying to determine who could have manufactured this cough syrup to make a profit by using opium and selling it to drug addicts,” an official added.

Furthermore, they said that lab reports showed that the active ingredients in Tyno were not toxic. The problem might be with the binder and preserver, which are used along with the active ingredients in every medicine. Further tests would be conducted to ascertain the poisonous ingredient, the officials said.

The officials added that so far no samples of the syrup manufactured by Reko Pharma have been found to be suspicious.



They further said that those who survived revealed that they had been consuming the syrup for quite some time and could therefore not die from an overdose.

A post mortem report of one of the victims stated that the patient died of asphyxia which is caused when there is a deficiency of oxygen in the body, usually caused when somebody is poisoned or uses poison, the officials added.

Meanwhile, according to a press release issued on Wednesday, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif presided over a high-level meeting to review the incident and vowed that due punishment would be given to those found responsible.

Petition filed in LHC

A writ petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court seeking a judicial inquiry of the incident.

Judicial Activism Panel chairman Azhar Siddique filed the petition, stating that there was a dire need to constitute a judicial inquiry tribunal in order to conduct a detailed inquiry of the incident.

He prayed to the court to issue directions for the registration of criminal cases against the authorities concerned who, he added, acted in negligence. (WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RANA TANVEER IN LAHORE)

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2012.