After 5 deaths at Kota hospitals, Rajasthan bans childbirth drug TOCIN as sample fails potency test

JAIPUR: Rajasthan’s Drug Control Department Monday banned the sale and use of TOCIN (Oxytocin Injection 5 ml), manufactured by Jackson Laboratories Pvt Ltd, after a sample of the drug failed in the quality tests. The department has so far seized around 3,500 vials from Kota govt hospital and other stockists linked to the medicine’s supply chain.

Drug Controller Rajasthan Ajay Phatak told TOI that the sample failed because it did not contain the required quantity of the oxytocin component. “Though the sample passed bacterial endotoxin and sterility tests, the required quantity of oxytocin was not found in the injection,” Phatak said. Orders have now been issued across the state to ban the injection manufactured by the company.

Phatak said oxytocin injections must be stored at temperatures between 2°C and 8°C to maintain their effectiveness. “The injection is generally administered during normal deliveries to induce labour pain and is also used to control excessive bleeding after childbirth,” he added.

Clarifying concerns over the recent deaths of 5 pregnant women in Kota hospitals, Phatak said the banned injections have no direct link with the deaths. “The women who died in Kota underwent caesarean deliveries, while this injection is primarily meant for inducing labour in normal delivery cases,” he said.

The development comes amid an ongoing investigation into the deaths of five women during treatment after childbirth in Kota. Officials said the banned injection belonged to a different batch and was available in 5 ml quantity, whereas the medical college in Kota locally procured 1 ml injections of the same company from another batch.

Following the failed sample report, drug control teams launched a crackdown in Kota and inspected locations connected to the supply of the injections to govt hospitals.