India directed drug manufacturers to stop using propylene glycol sourced from the Delhi-based firm that supplied the ingredient to Marion Biotech, whose cough syrups were linked to the deaths of 18 children in Uzbekistan, according to a government document.
In December, Uzbekistan said that the children died after consuming Marion’s cough syrups, Ambronol and DOK-1 Max, which were contaminated with unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol or ethylene glycol.
Following this, India suspended the pharmaceutical company’s production, and police arrested three Marion employees after tests in a government laboratory found 22 of 36 syrup samples “adulterated and spurious”.
In a letter sent to all state licensing authorities on Tuesday, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) said that Delhi-based Maya Chemtech was the main supplier of the propylene glycol used in the affected batches.
The letter read: Accordingly, you are requested to instruct your enforcement officials to keep a strict vigil on the matter and take stringent action … against the offenders in the public interest.
The incident of Uzbekistan deaths came close on the heels of a similar one in Gambia, where a parliamentary committee linked the deaths of at least 70 children to cough and cold syrups manufactured by New Delhi-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals.
Gambia cough syrup deaths
•In October 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) had issued an alert stating that the four cough syrups being supplied to Gambia by the India-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd were of substandard quality and claimed that they were linked to the death of many children in Gambia.
•Maiden Pharma has a large international presence and has its supply chain to multiple countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Russia.
•The four drugs are Promethazine Oral Solution BP, KOFEXMALIN Baby Cough Syrup, MaKOFF Baby Cough syrup, and MaGrip n Cold Syrup, which are licensed to Maiden Pharma for export purposes only.
However, the government gave a clean chit to Maiden Pharmaceuticals stating that the paediatric cough syrups made by the company are of “standard quality”, citing tests conducted on samples seized from the firm’s Haryana factory in October.
