India has disclosed that it is testing samples of cough syrups produced by local manufacturer Maiden Pharmaceuticals for export after the World Health Organization said its products were linked to the deaths of dozens of children in Gambia.
The deaths of 66 children in the West African country could deal a major blow to India’s image as a “pharmacy of the world”.
The WHO this week said laboratory analysis of four Maiden products – Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup – had confirmed “unacceptable” amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which can be toxic and lead to acute kidney injury.
Diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol are used in antifreeze and brake fluids and other industrial applications but also as a cheaper alternative in some pharmaceutical products to glycerine, a solvent or thickening agent in many cough syrups.
India’s health ministry said samples of all four products that had been exported to Gambia had been sent for testing to a federal laboratory and the results would “guide the further course of action as well as bring clarity on the inputs received/to be received from WHO.”
A spike in cases of acute kidney injury among children under the age of five was detected in Gambia in late July.
The government in Banjul announced last month that it was investigating the deaths, and the country’s Health Ministry ordered hospitals to discontinue the use of syrup-based paracetamol treatment after at least 28 children died of kidney failure.
