400,000 substandard cough syrup bottles seized

District officer says action will be taken against company.

BAHAWALPUR: Some 400,000 bottles of cough syrup worth hundreds of thousands of rupees sent to the rural health centre two weeks ago have been found to be substandard and was seized by the Health Department.

District Officer (Health) Dr Hassan Khan said that action will be initiated against the company. He said a case will be filed in the drug court in Bahawalpur.

Drug Inspector Maqbool Bhatti told The Express Tribune that an inquiry into the matter had begun. He said that some Health Department employees were allegedly involved in buying medicines nearing expiry. Nothing has, however, been proved yet, he added. He said the Health Department had set up committees for purchasing medicines and that the members fulfilled all legal formalities before any purchase was made.

He regretted that such frauds were still made by some employees.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an employee of the company the medicines were purchased from, told The Express Tribune that 250,000 bottles of syrup had been replaced. He said the company was also investigating it.

In 2007, a similar case in Rahim Yar Khan had resulted in dozens of patients developing complications. There were no deaths.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2013.