Uzbek cough syrup deaths: Process under way to cancel license of Marion Biotech

The process has been initiated for cancellation of the drug license of pharmaceutical firm Marion Biotech, which is allegedly linked with the death of 18 children in Uzbekistan who consumed their cough syrup in December 2022, officials said on Sunday.

All production of drugs and other activities at the firm's campus in Sector 67 here have also been stopped completely, Gautam Buddh Nagar drug inspector Vaibhav Babbar said.

On Friday, the local police arrested three senior employees of the firm after an FIR was lodged against them on charges of manufacturing and sale of adulterated drugs.

The two directors of the company named in the FIR, however, still remain at large.

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“The process has been initiated for cancellation of the drug license of pharmaceutical firm Marion Biotech. Paperwork for it is in progress and a report has been sent to the Uttar Pradesh government," Babbar told PTI.

"All production at the firm had been suspended in January itself and now it has been completely stopped,” he said.

Marion Biotech had come under the scanner in December over reports of the children's death in Uzbekistan after which India's Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) initiated a probe into the matter and found 22 out of 36 samples “not of standard quality” (adulterated and spurious).

The World Health Organization had also declared a “medical product alert” related to Marion Biotech's drugs in the wake of the deaths reported in Uzbekistan.

The cough syrup 'Dok-1 Max', which was under the spotlight, has no domestic market in India and it was only an export item, the drug inspector said.