Photo credit, OMS
The WHO had advised regulators to stop the sale of the four Indian-made cough syrups.
A Gambian parliamentary committee has recommended that charges be brought once morest the Indian manufacturer of cough syrups, suspected of causing the deaths of at least 70 children in the country.
She said Maiden Pharmaceuticals should be held responsible for exporting what she called tainted drugs.
The WHO had issued an alert in October, advising regulators to stop the sale of these syrups.
Maiden Pharmaceuticals has denied these claims.
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Indian state labs said tests carried out on the syrups found them to be “on spec”. An Indian official said last week that the WHO was “presumptuous” in blaming syrups.
But the global health body told the BBC it was only following its mandate and “sticking to the measures taken”.
After weeks of investigation, The Gambia’s parliamentary committee has recommended that the authorities take tough action, including banning all Maiden Pharmaceuticals products in the country and taking legal action once morest the company.
The commission said it “is satisfied that Maiden Pharmaceuticals [est] guilty and must be held responsible for the export of the contaminated drugs”.
“The findings remain the same as previous reports that Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup were contaminated with diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol,” the parliamentary committee said in its report.
Diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol are toxic to humans and can be fatal if consumed. But the commission added that the exact scientific cause of the children’s deaths was still being investigated.
The committee also asked the national drug control agency to ensure that all drugs imported into the country are properly registered and that manufacturers are audited, including visiting their facilities.
The report also revealed shortcomings in the country’s health system, urging the government to strengthen it and provide better equipment and medicines to hospitals across the country.
Photo credit, Famille Kuyateh
Musa is one of 66 children who died following taking the cough syrup
What happened ?
In late July, The Gambia detected an increase in cases of acute kidney injury in children under five. The government later said that around 69 children had died from these injuries.
The WHO then identified four of Maiden Pharmaceuticals’ drugs as potentially linked to the deaths of Gambian children and issued a global alert.
After the news broke in October, India said it was investigating the products and ordered Maiden Pharmaceuticals to halt production at its main plant in the northern state of Haryana.
On December 13, Dr. VG Somani, India’s Comptroller General of Medicines, wrote a letter to the WHO saying that the samples tested in a government laboratory “were not contaminated” with the compounds.” According to test reports received from the government laboratory, all control samples of the four products were found to meet the specifications,” he added.
The test results are currently being reviewed by a group of Indian experts.
A senior adviser to India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting told the BBC last week that the WHO had been “presumptuous” in blaming cough syrups for the children’s deaths.
“Inspections, tests and studies carried out by Notified Bodies and Indian Government technical team have shown that the presumptive statement by WHO is false and incorrect,” Kanchan Gupta said, adding that the health body had “ took the plunge without valid scientific reasons”.
India produces a third of the world’s medicines, mainly in the form of generic drugs.
Home to some of the fastest growing pharmaceutical companies, the country is known as the “pharmacy of the world” and serves a large portion of the medical needs of African nations.