Following a drug regulator examination, the Indian manufacturer of a cough syrup that was implicated in the deaths of 19 children in Uzbekistan has stopped producing all medications, according to both the company and India’s health minister.
Production at the Marion Biotech facility in Noida, outside of Delhi, was paused as a senior executive for the company stated they were expecting findings after the inspection, according to Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. On Friday, Mandaviya posted on Twitter that “all manufacturing activities of Marion Biotech at the Noida site have been suspended yesterday night, while an additional investigation is proceeding.”
The head of legal at Marion Biotech, Hasan Harris, told Reuters’ partner ANI, “The factory was examined; we are awaiting the reports. All drug production has been stopped.” In response to Reuters’ request for comment regarding media claims that inspectors had discovered some violations of manufacturing regulations at one of the company’s production facilities, neither Marion Biotech nor the health ministry quickly responded. A one-year-old child was reported as the 19th victim on Thursday by Uzbek media. At least 18 toddlers in Samarkand perished, according to prior reports from Uzbekistan’s health ministry, after ingesting Dok-1 Max syrup from Marion Biotech.
The syrup, according to Uzbekistan’s health ministry, contained the deadly ingredient ethylene glycol and was given to children in levels above what is considered safe for them, either by their parents who believed it to be an anti-cold cure or on the advice of pharmacists. On Thursday, the Indian ministry of chemicals and fertilizers published an order outlining the rules that will govern the sale of ethylene glycol starting at the end of March. The Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan has filed a lawsuit against a corporate representative there and ordered all pharmacies to stop selling Dok-1 Max tablets and syrups.
On Friday, the Uzbek news website uzdaily.uz reported, citing the country’s Pharmaceuticals Industry Development Agency, that all Marion Biotech medication sales had been temporarily halted in Uzbekistan. India is referred to as the “pharmacy of the world” and its pharmaceutical exports have increased by 2x over the last 10 years, reaching $24.5bn in the most recent fiscal year. The Uzbek example comes after at least 70 children’s fatalities in the Gambia that were attributed to cough and cold syrups made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a company based in New Delhi. The company denied any involvement, and inspectors from the Indian government said test samples of cough syrups related to deaths in the Gambia did not contain any contaminants and that they met official regulations.
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