Indian officials on Thursday said World Health Organization (WHO) would soon send information on any links between an Indian-made cough syrup and the deaths of dozens of children in Gambia.
The death of 66 children in Gambia was a blow to India’s image as a “pharmacy of the world” that supplied medicines to all continents, especially Africa.
According to WHO, the cough syrup was made by New Delhi-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals.
“Urgent investigation in the matter has been already taken up, immediately after receiving communication from WHO based on the available information,” one of two health ministry staff members who spoke to Reuters on behalf of the ministry but did not want to be identified said.
While all required steps would be taken in the matter, India was awaiting a report establishing “causal relation to death with the medical products in question” and other details from the WHO.
Naresh Kumar Goyal, a Maiden director, told Reuters it heard about the deaths only on Thursday morning and were trying to find out details.
“We are trying to find out the situation because it cropped up only today,” he said by phone. “We are trying to find out with the buyer and all that what has happened exactly. We are not selling anything in India.”
He declined to speak further.
WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus told reporters on Wednesday that the U.N. agency was investigating the deaths from acute kidney injuries with India’s drug regulator and the drug maker.
The agency informed the Drugs Controller General of India of the deaths in September after which the regulator launched an investigation with state authorities, in tandem with the WHO, the two sources said.
The WHO said laboratory analysis of Maiden cough syrup had confirmed “unacceptable” amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which could be toxic and led to acute kidney injury.
Maiden, which launched its operations in November 1990, manufactured and exported the syrup only to Gambia, the Indian ministry sources said.
Maiden said on its website it had two manufacturing plants, in Kundli and Panipat, both near New Delhi in Haryana state, and had recently set up another one.
It had an annual production capacity of 2.2 million syrup bottles, 600 million capsules, 18 million injections, 300,000 ointment tubes and 1.2 billion tablets.
Maiden said on its website it sold its products at home and exports to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, though Goyal said they were not currently selling in India.
The two health ministry sources said that importing countries typically tested such products before allowing their use.
The WHO said the Maiden products – Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup maight had been distributed elsewhere through informal markets but it had only been identified in Gambia. (Reuters/NAN)
