- Monday, March 10, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The Indian health ministry on Thursday (6) said samples of cough syrup that has been linked by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to the deaths of scores of children in The Gambia have been sent for examination, underlining that the products were made solely for exports and not sold in the domestic market.
The ministry added that samples of the same batch manufactured by Maiden Pharmaceuticals, Delhi, for all four drugs have been sent for laboratory testing and the results would “guide further course of action as well as bring clarity on the inputs received/to be received from WHO.”
The ministry asked the world health body to share its report on “establishment of causal relation to death with the medical products in question”.
The deaths of 66 children in the west African nation is a blow to India’s image as the world’s pharmacy that supplies medicines to all continents, particularly Africa.
On Wednesday (5), the WHO said that laboratory test of four Maiden products — Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Magrip N Cold Syrup – had confirmed presence of “unacceptable” amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which can be toxic and cause acute kidney injury.
Diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which are used in antifreeze and brake fluids and other industrial applications, can also be a cheaper alternative in some pharmaceutical products.
Anil Vij, the health minister of the northern Indian state of Haryana, where Maiden has its factories, warned of “strict action if anything is found wrong” after the examination.
Naresh Kumar Goyal, a Maiden director, told Reuters that it heard about the deaths only on Thursday morning and were trying to know the 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 Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Wednesday that the UN agency was probing 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 late September, following which the regulator launched a probe with state authorities in tandem with the world health body.
Maiden, which launched its operations in November 1990, manufactured and exported the syrup only to the Gambia, the health ministry said.
On its website, Maiden says it has two manufacturing plants — in Kundli and Panipat — both near New Delhi in Haryana, and has recently set up another one.
It has 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.
[With Reuters inputs]
