New Delhi: The World Health Organisation in its probe related to the supply of contaminated cough syrups across the world, has flagged seven Made-in-India products.
The WHO probe flagged a total of twenty toxic medicines whose consumption led to the death of more than 200 deaths across the world. Rest of the medicine products in the list originated from Indonesia, said WHO officials.
Haryana-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals, Marion biotech, and QP Pharma Chem are the main producer of these toxic syrups. Notably, WHO has earlier also issued alert for India-made contaminated drugs, but this time the list has come after the completion of a full investigation on the matter.
WHO, in its probe found high level of diethylene and ethylene glycol in the cough syrups that led to several deaths across the globe. Supply of substandard medicines by India came into limelight after multiple deaths were reported in African countries after the consumption of cough syrup. Last year, medicines made-in-India lead to the death of more than 60 children in Gambia and around 20 in Uzbekistan last year.
It was found that the syrup medications contained two toxic chemicals ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol.
Earlier, a joint probe conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the US and the Gambian health authorities suggested a strong link between the death of many children in Gambia and the consumption of made-in-India cough syrups.
12 more deaths reported in Africa’s Cameroon linked to India-made cough syrups
In a latest development, Central African nation Cameroon reported twelve deaths of children due to contaminated cough syrups. The authorities expect death of children is the result of consumption of made in India medicines.
Bloomberg, after access to the image shared by health officials in Cameroon, suggests the contaminated medicines to be manufactured by Riemann Labs Pvt. Ltd., based in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
The drugs in the photo “look like ours,” said a director at Riemann, Navin Bhatia, in a phone interview to Bloomberg. He also made it clear that Reimann follows strict quality controls and there is no possibility that it made tainted medicine and hinted of counterfeiting.
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