In India, the production of the company whose cough syrup WHO has linked to the deaths of children will resume

In India, the production of the company whose cough syrup WHO has linked to the deaths of children will resume

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In India, the northern state of Uttar Pradesh was allowed to resume most production at a plant owned by the company Marion Biotech.

The firm is one of three Indian companies whose cough syrups the World Health Organization has linked to the deaths of 141 children in Uzbekistan, Gambia and Cameroon, writes Reuters.

“There is no known case of insufficient quality of other drugs produced by this company.

Its permission to manufacture products using propylene glycol (PG) is cancelled, but it is allowed to manufacture and sell all other products.” – it is noted in the order of the drug control department in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Photo: Vilin Visuals/GettyImages

Marion Biotech in the state was shut down in March this year after Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Health found two of Marion Biotech’s cough syrups, Ambronol and DOK-1 Max, to contain large amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol toxins.

The department added that the detected substances are usually used in products not intended for human consumption.

In January, a government laboratory in India conducted an analysis of the drugs, after which it said that 22 samples of Marion Biotech’s syrups were “withfalsified and forged.

At the same time, they added that some drugs, in particular cough syrups, did contain ethylene glycol.

After Marion Biotech appealed the decision to stop its operations, on August 11 it was allowed to resume production of medical preparations that do not contain ethylene glycol.

Read also: Deadly cough syrup: An Indian company added an industrial ingredient to the medicine

Photo: Natalia Gdovskaia/GettyImages

We previously reported that the WHO linked the death of more than 300 children in Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan to the use of cough syrups produced by six Indian and Indonesian pharmaceutical companies.

In October 2022, the WHO issued a warning about cough syrups made by two Indian manufacturers: Maiden Pharmaceuticals and Marion Biotech. It was then that the organization said their products were linked to deaths in The Gambia.

These are the following syrups:

  • Promethazine Oral Solution,
  • Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup,
  • Makoff Baby Cough Syrup,
  • Magrip N Cold Syrup.

The Maiden and Marion factories were closed, but Maiden is now trying to reopen after the Indian government said in December that testing had found no problems with the products.

Later, the WHO warned about the dangerous use of syrups by four more Indonesian manufacturing companies:

  • Yarindo Farmatama,
  • PT Universal Pharmaceutical,
  • PT Konimex,
  • PT AFI Farma.

The lawyer of PT Universal Pharmaceutical Industries Germansia Hutagalung said in a comment to the publication that the company has withdrawn from the market all cough syrups that have been recognized as dangerous.

“Go after the suppliers, they are the real criminals. They are the ones who fake the raw materials, falsifying the documents for the raw materials all the way to the pharmaceutical companies.” Hutagalung emphasized, but did not name specific suppliers or provide details to support this claim.

Read also: Indian cough syrups may have caused the death of 66 children in Africa – WHO

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