Authorities in the provincial capital shut down a pharmaceutical factory and three drug stores more than 72 hours after a toxic cough syrup claimed at least 16 lives, officials said on Monday.
The deaths occurred in the Shahdra Town neighbourhood between Friday and Sunday with the victims mostly drug addicts who took the syrup, named Tyno, to get high.
The scandal follows the deaths of around 100 heart patients who took the faulty medicine that had been made locally.
The Punjab Health Department has imposed a ban on Tyno, which is manufactured by Reko Pharmacal Lahore. According to a Health Department spokesperson, all drug inspectors have been issued immediate instructions to drop the existing stock of Tyno and ensure a blanket ban on its sale.
According to the police, some of the victims were found dead in a graveyard where addicts used to routinely assemble and take different kinds of drugs. Seven others died in the hospital.
The Punjab government has shut down three drug stores and arrested their owners.
Punjab Health Adviser Khawaja Salman Rafiq said the syrup would be confiscated from all pharmacies, adding that inspectors had shut down a drug factory and sent samples to a laboratory for detailed analysis.
“Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has ordered an inquiry and a report will be submitted to him within 72 hours,” Rafiq said.
An official of the Health Department said that so far 151 places had been raided to seize stocks of the poisonous syrup. He added that murder case has been registered against the pharmaceutical company and the pharmacy owners who sold the syrup.
Dr Tahir Khalil at the Mayo Hospital said 20 victims aged 15 to 45 had been admitted after drinking the syrup and most had a history of addiction.
“Six people were saved and were discharged after treatment, while seven others were still admitted to hospital,” he said.
(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM AFP)
Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2012.
COMMENTS (18)
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Surprisingly there are not much blames on PML-N by PTI on this tragedy!
It is heartening to see comments like the one above. We as the educated youth of Pakistan must learn to utilize our years of education and realize the vulturous role the media is playing in our society nowadays. We must learn NOT to believe each and every word that is fed to us through these poisonous channels, and use our own common sense. At the end of the day, the fact does still appear to stand that the medicine was not tainted by the pharmaceutical. However, the media has done its utmost best to exaggerate and lie about the company ruthlessly.
Latest article:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/471721/nothing-wrong-with-tyno-cough-syrup-victims-overdosed-report/
@MK: As an educated citizen of this country, I believe we should all get the facts together before completely elucidating and damaging the image of our Pharma industry. Hence, MK please do yourself a favor and get your facts together before making such biased statements on a public forum.
It seems like that most of the posts above come from some agent of the pharma company that makes Tyno syrup, as he/she is desperately trying to disprove the allegations.
Just like media was all out bashing the image of the company on false information, i think its time for media to owe up to their mistake and apologize to all its readers for providing false information based on ZERO facts. All news and test results are now confirming that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the syrup whereas all news channels had labelled it as "toxic" and tarnished the image of the company. It takes several year and unimagineable hard work to build up a company with such good repute and relations to serve the humanity and just seconds for fame and ratings hungry media persons to ruin it all. No wonder we as a country have never succeeded in any walk of life. Absolutely disgusting and immature behaviour displayed by media persons. The government should be focusing on cracking down on fake medicine manufacturers and be able to help the drug addicts in other constructive ways.
I couldn't agree more with Mariam & Naazir. The fact remains that the cough syrup produced by the manufacturer had no toxic substances mixed in it, and has conformed with all drug tests carried out at the DTL. I would second Mariams request to the Express Tribune to release the Drug Testing Report obtained from the DTL. Media is doing its absolute best to simply tarnish the reputation of the pharmaceutical company. This is a humble request to all Pakistani's to simply understand the facts and the situation at hand before making any such accusations.
Punjab Governments GOOD GOVERNANCE is on show now!
All news reports about this are full of inconsistencies. When individuals overdoses on any medication, they die. It's plain and simply common sense. Why is the medication being declared toxic without seeing the Drug Testing Laboratory reports? Since when does the media have authority to declare a medicine toxic?
From my research, this medication has been in production for 50 years, with no known complaints. A news report yesterday shown on City 42, showed a Hakim reusing bottles of Tyno, filling them with his own concoctions. This can be done with any medicine - does this mean all medication should be banned? Or that pharmaceutical companies should be blamed for productions? People that can read this story are the relatively educated population of Pakistan - why are we so easily convinced? Why is there no research on our parts? I would like to see Express Tribune publish the DTL report so we can then establish if the medication was in fact contaminated or "toxic". We may think we are doing good to the population, but we are potentially tarnishing the image of a perfectly suitable pharmaceutical company from what I can tell. Anywhere else in the world, people are innocent until proven guilty - here, we have taken individuals to be guilty until proven innocent; and possibly damaged more livelihoods (factory workers, owners, other pharmacies across the country selling medication manufactured by this factory) than those 16 drug addicts that died of an overdose. Wake up Pakistan! This is our chance to take a stand againt media. We can change our countries future! The media feeds off these stories. STAND FOR THE TRUTH!
It saddens me when we as a nation instantly jump to pointing fingers at each other without any facts with us. Shame on those especially media who is trying to discredit the company and the product and shame on the government's incompetent staff for not being able to control the drug addicts and fake medicine manufacturers and is only out for point scoring for upcoming elections. For all ignorant people accusing the company please do some research to find out that Reko Pharmacal has been in business serving humanity and providing quality drug consisently for over past 50 years and all of its drugs are approved and the company enjoys each and every required standard affiliation. An overdose of ANY medication can be fatal and this news is as stupid as "man buys vehicle, speeds on M.M Alam road at 160 kph, meets a fatal accident and registers a murder case against the vehicle manufacturer" take grip of your thinking and dont be fed by these rating hungry media vultures.
LAHORE: At least 16 people have died after drinking a toxic cough syrup (Tyno)in the Pakistani city of Lahore, forcing authorities to close three pharmacies and a medicine factory, officials said Monday.
http://rtilive.pk/detail/6924
Right to Information Pakistan Live, RTI Live, Information Pakistan, RTI online Research ORganization, toxic cough syrup in Lahore, toxic cough syrup (Tyno), forcing authorities to close a medicine factory, low-income Shahdra Town, 100 heart patients died in January, health adviser for Punjab province, Khawaja Salman Rafiq, Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, Doctor Tahir Khalil at Lahore's Mayo Hospital,
where is khadim e ala?
authorities should rather investigate the authority who gives license to such pharmaceuticals without a proper investigation.