Pharma firm under scrutiny
GAMBIA TO PROBE DEATHS LINKED TO COUGH SYRUP IMPORTED FROM INDIA
POLICE in Gambia last Saturday (8) announced they were launching an investigation into the deaths of dozens of children, amid growing concern over imported medicines.
Following the deaths of 66 children, most from acute kidney failure, police said in a statement they were putting senior officers on the investigation.
India is investigating cough syrups made by a local pharmaceutical company after the World Health Organization said they could be responsible for the deaths.
President Adama Barrow authorised the health authorities “to suspend the license of the suspected... importer” involved in the case, his office said last Saturday evening (8).
The foreign ministry was to communicate “his government’s most profound concern” to the Indian embassy, it added.
Barrow last Friday (7) promised to boost health measures, including better quality control over imported medicines.
He said the government would leave “no stone unturned” to get to the bottom of the incident.
The WHO last Wednesday (5) issued an alert over four cough and cold syrups made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals in India
over possible links to the deaths. Laboratory testing had found unacceptable levels of potentially life-threatening contaminants, the WHO said, adding that the products may have been distributed beyond the West African country.
A statement from India’s health ministry said last week, “It is a usual practice that the importing country tests these imported products on quality parameters, and satisfies itself as to the quality of the products.”
Maiden said last Thursday (6) that it had only just heard about the deaths and was trying to find out details.
Barrow said Gambia’s health ministry was working with the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some syrup samples sent to Senegal, Ghana, France and Switzerland for testing showed signs of contamination last Thursday, he added.
Gambian health authorities had on September 23 ordered a recall of all medicines containing paracetamol or promethazine syrup.
Barrow announced a raft of measures to avoid future tragedies, including the creation of “a quality control national laboratory for drugs and food safety”.
He promised to update the nation’s drugs-related laws to ensure regulation could prevent any such incidents in the future. He praised the work of the health ministry in preventing further deaths.
He said the outbreak was “now under control, with only two cases reported in the last two weeks”.
Maiden Pharmaceuticals has caught the attention of Indian regulators several times. The Food and Drug Administration issued notices to the firm four times this year for “substandard” product manufacturing based on batch tests, according to the agency’s website.