Cough syrups from India contaminated with toxic substances: Gambian Parliament report

WHO said that samples of the cough syrups contain dangerous chemicals that should not be in any medicine

A Parliamentary committee in The Gambia has concluded that cough syrups imported from India linked to the deaths of 70 children were contaminated with toxic substances, days after the Union Health Ministry virtually gave a clean chit to Haryana-based manufacturer, Maiden Pharmaceuticals.

“The Select Committee is convinced that Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd is culpable and should be held accountable for exporting the contaminated medicines that was linked to the death of at least 70 children in The Gambia in 2022,” the Parliamentary panel in the west African country says in its report.

The Parliamentary committee and the World Health Organisation independently said that samples of the cough syrups contain excess levels of ethyleneglycol and diethyleneglycol - dangerous chemicals that should not be in any medicine, ever – even though tests carried out by Indian regulatory agencies couldn’t find EG and DEG in the samples they tested.

Also Read | Gambia deaths: Govt blames WHO for premature deduction

Gambian officials and experts from different fields deposed before the panel sharing their accounts on how 70 children died reportedly after consuming the contaminated cough syrups.

The Select Committee was informed by the health ministry that between June 4 to November 6, a total of eight (8) suspected cases, two (2) probable cases, eight-two (82) confirmed cases and seventy (70) deaths (case fatality rate of 85 per cent) of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) were recorded in the country. Majority of the confirmed cases were children below 3 years of age (68/82).

When the samples of Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup, were tested at Ghana and Switzerland, they were found to be contaminated with unacceptably high levels of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol.

The average time interval between consumption of the syrups and development of the symptoms (inability to pass urine) was 2-3 days, though in some cases it may be as low as a single day or as high as six days. The report, however, did not mention how many kids had consumed the syrups.

The Select Committee mentioned that the actual cause of death of these children was still under scientific investigation as causality tests were currently being undertaken by the Ministry of Health and partners.

But from the four products’ associations with the deaths, the committee recommended to the government to pursue legal action against Maiden Pharmaceuticals for exporting contaminated drugs to The Gambia. The panel also recommended blacklisting the Maiden Pharmaceuticals products and banning all their products in the Gambian market.

Earlier this month, V G Somani, the Drugs Controller General of India wrote to the WHO once again asking the UN agency to share the causality data and observing that tests carried out at the Indian end did not find DEG or EG in any of the cough syrup samples.