Delhi dismisses Gambia children deaths link to India-made cough syrups

India has told the World
Health Organization (WHO) that samples taken from Indian
pharmaceutical company Maiden Pharma, whose products were linked
to the deaths of children in Gambia, have been found to comply
with the required specifications.

Indian health authorities announced a production halt at
Maiden Pharmaceuticals’ factory in Sonepat in northern India in
October after a WHO report said the company’s cough and cold
syrups might be linked to the deaths of 69 children in Gambia.

In a letter to the WHO dated December 13, India’s drugs
controller general, V.G. Somani, said that tests on samples of
Maiden Pharma’s products “have been found to be complying with
specifications” and showed the samples were not contaminated
with ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol.

The Indian health ministry released a copy of the letter to
reporters on Thursday.

The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for
comment. In October, the UN agency said that its
investigators had found “unacceptable” levels of diethylene
glycol and ethylene glycol, which can be toxic and lead to acute
kidney injury, in the products manufactured by Maiden Pharma.

Gambian police said in October that they were investigating
if the deaths of 69 children from acute kidney injury were
linked to four cough syrups made in India and imported into the
West African country.

Gambia’s Medicine Control Agency, a national regulatory
body, later said it had not yet pinpointed the exact cause of
the deaths.

The WHO’s statement in October, linking the deaths to the
cough syrup manufactured in India, caused “irreparable damage”
to the country’s supply chain of pharmaceutical products, Somani
said in the December 13 letter, addressed to Roderigo Gaspar,
director, regulation, and prequalification, at WHO.

READ MORE: Gambia launches inquiry into children deaths linked to India syrups