In an effort to check the drug abuse of codeine containing formulations originating from India in Bangladesh, the central government has announced that it will take special measures to check the smuggling of such products at the Indo-Bangladesh border. The new measure is mainly targeted on illicit trading of cough syrups like Phensydil and Corex across the border, according to trade sources.

As per a notification of Central Board of Excise and Customs, a few days ago, the special measures will be taken for the purpose of checking the illegal export of the drug formulations containing codeine or its salts and will also facilitate the detection of the goods which are likely to be illegally taken out.

The notification stated, "The Central Government hereby specifies the goods in the said schedule as the goods in respect of which special measures for the purpose of checking their illegal export and facilitating the detection of the said goods which are likely to be illegally exported, shall be taken in the areas specified in India's land border with Bangladesh falling within the territories of West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram".

The notification gets its importance amidst the rapid growth of smuggling of codeine based medicines, especially phensydil, the cough syrup manufactured by Mumbai based Nicholas Piramal Industries Ltd (NPIL) and Corex, one of the top brand cough syrup products from Pfizer. The traders from West Bengal say that the cough syrup is one of the major products carried to the neighbouring country for drug abuse.

"The measures against drugs including codeine or its salts directly target the illegal exports of phensydil from Nicholas Piramal and Corex cough syrup from Pfizer. Though there is no comprehensive data on the quantity of these exports, according to information we receive across the border suggests that these are widely abused," said Samardas, a traders' organisation leader from Bangladesh.

According to the information available from the companies, 5ml of Phensydil Cough Linctus syrup contains 10mg of codeine phosphate and 4mg of chlorpheniramine meleate whereas 5ml of Corex Cough Syrup has 10mg of codeine phosphate, 4mg of chlorpheniramine maleate and 5mg of ephedrine hydrochloride.

As per the media reports available, the Bangladesh government has seized almost 3,000 bottles of phensidyl syrup in February and another 1000 bottles in March 2008. It is the illicit traders, not the company should be blamed for such incidents, as the company is manufacturing the product legally in India while a group of drug abusers export it to Bangladesh, the trade sources said.