FDA: There’s no batch of contaminated Johnson & Johson cough syrup in Ghana

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has put in place measures to ensure A batch of the children’s cough syrup manufactured by Johnson & Johnson is not smuggled into Ghana.

A batch of the children’s cough syrup manufactured by Johnson & Johnson in 2021 has now been recalled by drug authorities in six African countries.

This is after Nigeria’s drug agency warned that it contained high levels of a toxic and potentially fatal substance.

Drug regulators in Tanzania and Zimbabwe are the latest to recall the syrup as a precautionary measure, although Zimbabwe’s Medicines Control Authority said there was no record of the syrup being imported into the country.

Reacting to the development in a statement last Friday (12 April), the FDA says its surveillance shows the contaminated syrup in question is not in Ghana after reviewing data on importation from 2021.

“The FDA hereby assures the public that LOT No. 329304 is not available on our market, having reviewed all the data on the importation of the product to Ghana from 2021.

“Ongoing market surveillance efforts across the country so far confirm the absence of the lot in Ghana. The Authority has also heightened its surveillance activities at the ports with the view to prevent entry of LOT No.329304 onto the Ghanaian market.”

“The public is hereby cautioned to look out for the affected lot of Benylin Paediatric Syrup and report to any offices across the country,” the FDA statement said.