‘Made In India’ cough syrups kill 70 Children

According to the World Health Organisation the syrups contained “unacceptable” quantities of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol; commonly used as antifreeze. The chemicals can be fatal and led to acute kidney failure in dozens of children.

In October 2022, Gambia recalled a number of medicines following the deaths of the children, including all cough and cold syrups in circulation, as well as all products manufactured by the Indian firm Maiden Pharmaceuticals, where the contaminated syrups came from.

The inquiry concluded that the medicines had not been registered with the medicines control agency prior to being imported, as required by the regulations.

A government taskforce in The Gambia announced Friday that four cough syrups imported from India were responsible for the deaths of at least 70 children from kidney failure last year.

Health Minister Dr Ahmadou Lamin Samateh told a press conference that there were failings in regulatory and import checks of the medication, beginning with the products not being registered with the West African country’s Medical Control Agency (MCA).

The head of the MCA has been dismissed, he said, while also pointing blame at the supervising pharmacist who authorised the drugs’ import without sufficient background checks.

Beginning in September last year, The Gambia ordered a recall of several cough and cold medications, as well as all products manufactured by the Indian laboratory Maiden Pharmaceuticals from which the adulterated syrups originated, after the deaths of at least 70 infants.

It subsequently banned all products from the Indian firm.

The commissions also noted the urgent need to set up a quality control laboratory to carry out tests on all medicines imported into the country.

The Health Minister pointed to a number of areas for improvement to ensure a better quality health system, such as the creation of a school of pharmacy at the university and stricter control of medicines in circulation.

He also said that the Gambian government was exploring ways of taking legal action against the Indian pharmaceutical laboratory from which the drugs originated, in order to obtain compensation.

Following the health scandal, India shut down the Maiden Pharmaceuticals factory in northern India in October 2022.

A trial on the case is due to open in Gambia in October.

Early this year, the WHO announced a call for “immediate and coordinated action” to eradicate non-compliant and falsified medicines, in particular tainted cough syrups linked to the deaths of 300 children in Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan.