The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) on Thursday said it seized a batch of contaminated propylene glycol solvent labelled as manufactured by Dow Chemical, Thailand.

Dow Chemical, Thailand did not respond to a request for comment.

The move comes as authorities have identified toxic propylene glycol used in cough syrups as a possible reason for the deaths of more than 300 children in Indonesia, Gambia and Uzbekistan since 2022.

The World Health Organisation has linked the deaths outside Indonesia to cough syrups made in India.

“The regulatory field force has taken possession of a contaminated batch of Propylene Glycol and is investigating the entire supply chain of this batch,” Drap said in an alert, ordering the recall from local and export markets of any products manufactured from the same batch of propylene glycol.

“The batch was labelled as manufactured by Dow Chemical, Thailand,” it said.

“On analysis of a sample by the Central Drug Laboratory in Karachi, an unacceptable level of Ethylene Glycol was found” which can lead to serious health risks, the drug authority said.

It said that Ethylene Glycol’s ingestion can “affect the central nervous system, and heart, and can cause kidney damage, which can be fatal”.

It was not clear whether any amount of the imported chemical was used in local cough syrup.

The drug authority directed that finished products manufactured from any other batch of propylene glycol from Dow Chemical Thailand be put on hold.