Over the last two months, close to 90 children have died in two countries—Gambia and Uzbekistan—after consuming cough syrups produced in India. A little bit from a Moneycontrolopinion piece on the issue from earlier this week: (View Highlight)
A Gambian parliamentary committee has concluded that the deaths due to acute kidney failure can be linked to the children taking cough syrup manufactured by Maiden. WHO test reports have also revealed the presence of such contamination.
This has sent shock waves across India and brought a huge amount of adverse global publicity for the Indian pharmaceuticals industry. Indians have taken pride in their country being seen as a kind of pharmacy to the world supplying it with affordable generic (off patent) medicines like life saving HIV drugs. It is globally the third largest pharmaceutical producer in terms of volume and 14th largest in terms of value. (View Highlight)
Indians have taken pride in their country being seen as a kind of pharmacy to the world supplying it with affordable generic (off patent) medicines like life saving HIV drugs. It is globally the third largest pharmaceutical producer in terms of volume and 14th largest in terms of value. (View Highlight)
In order to meet the standards laid out by the FDA—one of the strictest drug regulators in the world—a drug maker wanting to export to the US would have to hire FDA-accredited consultants that charge about US$8,000 a day for about two years to make their factories compliant. (View Highlight)
They argue that while drug regulation in the West evolved after disasters, creating institutionalised mechanisms to ensure drug safety, not enough has been done in that regard in India—neither by the regulator, nor by the judiciary. A review of the book published in the Financial Express last month urges Indian regulators to prevent such blunders within the country. (View Highlight)
