Uzbekistan cough syrup deaths: India allows company to reopen factory
The Uttar Pradesh government has allowed Marion Biotech, which manufactured the cough syrup responsible for the deaths of 65 kids in Uzbekistan last year, to restart most production, Reuters reported. Uttar Pradesh's Food Safety and Drug Administration canceled the company's license in March this year and arrested three of its employees while its directors were absconding. However, in a September 14 order, it said there is no known case of a lack of quality in the firm's other medicines.
Why does this story matter?
Marion Biotech is one of the three companies whose cough syrups were said to be behind 141 deaths in Cameroon, Gambia, and Uzbekistan, as per the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as other agencies. Uzbekistan's state prosecutors accused the contaminated syrup's distributors of bribing officials with $33,000 or over Rs. 27 lakh to bypass mandatory testing. The central Asian nation has put 21 people, including 20 Uzbeks and one Indian, on trial for the deaths.
Allowed to manufacture all products except those using PG
The September order said the company's appeal had been "partially accepted." It is allowed to manufacture and sell all of its products except those using propylene glycol (PG). The firm was allowed to resume production on August 11 after an appeal, the order said. The order was issued by Drug Commissioner Shashi Mohan Gupta, who said that the Drugs Controller General of India Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, wrote to the Noida-based firm to work on a plan for corrective measures.
Cough syrup spurious and adultered, tests showed
Uzbekistan's health ministry last year found in an analysis that Marion Biotech's two cough syrups, Ambronol and DOK-1 Max, contained impermissible amounts of the toxins diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG), which are harmful for human consumption. After the products were tested in an Indian government laboratory in January, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) found that 22 samples of Marion Biotech's cough syrups were "spurious and adultered."
Factory awaiting inspection for opening up
The pharmaceuticals department informed Parliament that, on testing a sample of propylene glycol (PG) from the company's factory, it found EG. Notably, DEG and EG are cheaper alternatives to PG. The WHO suspected that some suppliers mixed the cheaper alternatives with PG when its prices surged in 2021. As of now, the factory remains closed while awaiting an inspection and a review of its documentation, the report said, quoting two anonymous sources.
