Hyderabad : Oral Rehydration Salts — has a precise, life-saving purpose. It is a clinically formulated solution, standardised by the WHO, designed to reverse dehydration caused by diarrhoea. In a country where diarrhoea still kills over one lakh children every year, ORS is not a product category. It is a medical intervention. And the line between it and a flavoured sugar drink is not a matter of opinion — it is a matter of biochemistry, clinical evidence, and ultimately, survival.
This is precisely why what has unfolded over the past eight years around ORSL — and now ERZL — is not a branding controversy. It is a public health emergency disguised as a marketing dispute.
For nearly eight years, Hyderabad-based pediatricianand nutrition advocate Dr. Sivaranjani Santosh raised consistent, documented concerns about ORSL — an electrolyte drink sold by Kenvue, the consumer health company spun off from Johnson & Johnson. Her central argument was precise: ORSL’s name, packaging, and pharmacy placement closely mimicked ORS — Oral Rehydration Salts — a WHO-standardised, life-saving formulation used to treat dehydration and diarrhoea in children. ORSL, however, is not ORS. It contained substantially higher sugar, and in Dr. Sivaranjani’sclinical experience, children given ORSL by well-intentioned parents continued to deteriorate — because the product was not meeting the physiological threshold of genuine ORS.
Her concerns eventually found legal traction. A case filed in the Delhi High Court by concerned parents and paediatricians resulted in a significant outcome: the Court ordered a full product ban and directed the company to recall existing stocks of ORSL. It was, by any measure, a landmark moment for consumer accountability in India’s health products market.
What followed the ban, however, has reignited the controversy. Kenvue relaunched the product under the name ERZL. Dr. Sivaranjani has publicly and specifically stated that the visual logic of the rebrand is deeply problematic: the letter ‘E’ in ERZL appears to echo the roundness of the ‘O’ in ORSL, while the ‘Z’ functions as a near-mirror image of the ‘S’. The overall packaging design, colour language, and pharmacy positioning remain strikingly similar to the banned product.
Kenvue has stated that ERZL carries an improved formulation with significantly reduced sugar. However, Dr. Sivaranjani’s publicly stated position is unambiguous: consumers who were misled into believing ORSL was ORS will carry that same misperception to ERZL, because the visual and phonetic scaffolding of the brand has not meaningfully changed. Approximately 85 to 90 percent of consumers, she argues, will continue to mistake the product for genuine ORS.
A widely reported and deeply concerning pattern has emerged on social media in recent weeks. Multiple posts and videos, shared by consumers and health advocates, appear to show ERZL stickers affixed directly over existing ORSL packaging — with peeled-back stickers revealing the original banned branding underneath. While these observations require formal regulatory investigation to be confirmed at scale, they raise an urgent question: were unsold ORSL stocks — ordered to be recalled by the Delhi High Court — relabelled and redistributed as ERZL? FSSAI and state drug regulatory authorities have yet to publicly respond to these widely circulated reports.
Rather than address the substance of Dr. Sivaranjani’spublicly stated concerns, Kenvue reportedly served her with a legal notice accusing her of defamation. The response from India’s medical community has been swift and unified. Doctors across specialties have publicly backed her, arguing that a licensed physician raisingevidence-based, clinically grounded concerns about a health product — particularly one affecting children — must be protected by the system, not targeted by it.
The branding concerns however extend beyond the ORS question. Meanwhile, FDC Limited, has filed a legal case against Kenvue, alleging that ERZL is phonetically similar to one of their brands. FDC spokesperson Mayank Tikkha confirmed to this publication that the proceedings have been formally initiated.
More than one lakh children die from diarrhoea in India every year. ORS remains one of the most powerful tools available to prevent those deaths. The line between ORS and a sugary electrolyte drink is not a branding technicality. It is a matter of life and death — and it deserves to be treated as one.
