Medicines save lives but improperly manufactured or poor quality medicines can also take away lives. Deaths of 66 children in the Gambia, a small West African country, after consuming certain cough syrups has sent alarm bells ringing in health sectors across the world
However, the Indian government has started an investigation into four cough syrups manufactured by a Haryana-based pharmaceutical firm after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that they could be linked to the children’s deaths in Gambia.
Top sources in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said the WHO alerted Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) about the cough syrups on September 29. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation immediately took up the matter with the Haryana regulatory authority and launched a detailed investigation.
The cough syrups have been manufactured by M/s Maiden Pharmaceutical Limited in Haryana's Sonepat. They added that as per the information available at this point, it seems the firm had exported these products only to The Gambia.
By the way, the company is yet to respond to the allegations. The firm's administrative office in Delhi's Pitampura was found shut the other day.
The WHO has warned that the syrups may have been distributed outside the West African country and a global exposure is "possible".