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Kenya's Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) has recalled an oral medicine used to relieve pain and fever in children.

Dr Fred Siyoi, the chief executive of the regulator, said the paracetamol oral solution called Tamedol was banned starting on Wednesday.

Tamedol is manufactured by a Kenyan pharmaceutical, Biopharma Limited, and becomes the ninth in a growing list of medicines so far recalled by the regulator this year alone.

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Dr Siyoi said the regulator initiated the revocation process after receiving a series of complaints from customers on the quality of several batches of Tamedol.

“In response to these concerns, the PPB, upon investigations, indeed confirmed that the product failed to meet the prescribed market authorisation requirements and has initiated a mandatory recall of the product,” said Dr Siyoi.

The PPB ordered pharmacists to halt the sale of Tamedol and urged the public to surrender any stocks they had bought to the nearest health facility.

The first drug to be taken off the shelves this year was Betamethasone Dipropionate, a cream used in the treatment of some skin conditions.

The PPB said the reason for stopping its distribution was that it had a potentially corroded component that was used during the manufacture of the products.

Other drugs were recalled in March, April, May and June.

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Some of the reasons cited are discolouration of the drugs, signs of moulding, fragmented tablets, and crumbled capsules.

Last year, the PPB recalled 11 products from the market and the year that had the highest cancellation was 2019.

Drugs may be recalled for an assortment of reasons including safety, mislabelling, contamination, and deviations in strength or potency.