Soon, pharmacists may not sell cough syrups without a doctor's prescription

The move comes after several children died in September due to contaminated cough syrups, following which the government declared three brands as toxic.

In a major development, pharmacists soon won’t be selling cough syrups over the counter without a doctor’s prescription, CNN News18 reported on November 18.

The Central government is considering a major regulatory change and a proposal is currently under review by the Drugs Consultative Committee (DCC), CNN News18 reported.

The proposal could remove cough syrups from the list of medicines allowed to be sold without any prescriptions, the report said.

The report said the agenda document for the panel has asked it to review the issue amid “recent incidences” of contaminated cough syrup.

Currently, cough syrups come under Schedule K list, which is for low-risk everyday medicines that can be sold even without full drug-sale licence, the report said.

The move comes after several children died in September due to contaminated cough syrups, following which the government declared three brands as toxic.

While all the deaths were linked to Coldrif, regulators in the world's third-largest medicine-producing country have asked consumers to also avoid Respifresh TR and ReLife. None of the syrups have been exported.

With agency inputs