India, Oct. 5 -- The death of 12 children in two states - Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan - from a deadly toxin detected in the cough syrups prescribed to them shows what ails drug regulation in the country. In the case of the Madhya Pradesh deaths, Coldrif, the cough syrup, was found to contain 48% diethylene glycol (DEG), which is 480 times the permissible limit of 0.1%.

This is not the first such instance - at home or abroad. In 2023, the WHO issued alerts on Indian cough syrups after the deaths of children in Gambia and Uzbekistan. At the time, many attempted to spin it as the failure of controls abroad on storage and transport, leading to contamination. But, even though the last such incidents at home happened decades ago - in 1986 (14...