After an Indian company’s cough and cold syrups were connected to deaths in the Gambia, the health ministry announced on Tuesday that the country’s pharmaceuticals regulator has started investigating some drug companies nationwide in an effort to assure high standards.
India is referred regarded as the “pharmacy of the world,” and in the most recent fiscal year, its pharmaceutical exports reached $24.5 billion, an increase of more than double over the previous ten years.
Though India claims that the pharmaceuticals produced by Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a New Delhi-based company, were not to blame, the deaths of at least 70 children in the Gambia have damaged the industry’s reputation.
“Joint inspections are being conducted all over the country as per standard operating procedures,” the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement. “This will ensure high standards of quality compliance with respect to drugs manufactured in the country.”
The government did not identify any specific business but stated that it was reviewing “drug manufacturing units” that were potentially producing substandard, adulterated, or fake medications.
Some medical professionals claim that India’s drug laws are loose, particularly at the state level where hundreds of companies are located.
Due to a violation of manufacturing standards, the government in October suspended all of Maiden’s production. Maiden is based in the state of Haryana.
However, this month India’s top pharmaceuticals official informed the WHO that tests on samples from the identical batches of syrups Maiden supplied to the Gambia were in line with regulations. Maiden also stated that the medications were okay.
In excess amounts of ethyleneglycol and diethyleneglycol pollutants, according to the WHO, were identified in the Maiden syrups by labs it hired in Ghana and Switzerland.
A Gambian parliamentary committee demanded that the government take legal action after declaring last week that Maiden was to blame for at least 70 children’s deaths from acute kidney damage.
