The World Well being Group (WHO) is poised to concern a broader alert relating to contaminated kids’s cough syrup produced by Johnson and Johnson JNJ in response to the invention of tainted batches in Nigeria.
Final week, Nigeria’s regulatory physique recalled a particular batch of Benylin syrup after detecting elevated ranges of diethylene glycol throughout routine testing.
This compound, together with a associated toxin, has been implicated within the deaths of over 300 kids throughout a number of nations since 2022, though no direct hyperlink has been established to latest remembers.
The U.N. well being company meant to concern a worldwide medical product alert to immediate heightened vigilance amongst nationwide authorities, pending affirmation of sure particulars.
The recalled batch of Benylin syrup originated from Johnson and Johnson in South Africa earlier than the model’s acquisition by Kenvue Inc KVUE following a spin-off final yr.
Reuters famous that Kenvue was conducting an unbiased evaluation and collaborating with well being authorities to find out acceptable measures.
Along with Nigeria, 5 different African nations, together with Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, have withdrawn the product from circulation, with South Africa’s regulatory physique recalling one other batch of the syrup.
Regardless of the potential dangers related to diethylene glycol consumption, no reported antagonistic results have been linked with the latest incident.
Earlier cases of contamination in 2022 had been traced again to uncooked supplies sourced from producers in India and Indonesia.
The WHO is working carefully with South African authorities and the producer to analyze the supply of the contamination within the Benylin pediatric syrup, together with scrutinizing the origin of the uncooked elements.
Kenvue asserts that pre-manufacture testing revealed no points with the uncooked supplies, although the potential of counterfeit merchandise is taken into account a part of ongoing investigations.
Value Motion: JNJ shares are up 0.35% at $146.24 on the final verify Friday.
Photograph through Firm
