Now, the CDSCO, the apex drugs regulatory authority, is examining a proposal to waive the requirement for testing cough syrups being exported to the US, the UK, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Korea and Switzerland at the prescribed laboratory, the sources said.
Further, if a cough syrup is manufactured in a plant or section approved by the regulatory agencies of these countries for any product, it may also be allowed to be exported to any country without testing at the prescribed laboratory, they said.
While the CDSCO is considering waiving the testing requirement, the sources said that according to the latest data, around 353 of 7,087 batches of cough syrups that were tested were found “not of standard quality” on various parameters, including contamination of toxic diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol.
























