CDSCO has also been silent on the fact that “unacceptable” amounts of diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol, which are said to have led to the deaths of children in Gambia, also killed children in Jammu in January 2020. DEG, which children killed in Jammu , was found in a cough syrup made by another company, M / s Digital Visionbased in Himachal Pradesh.
Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940, the punishment for manufacturing or trading in spurious drugs that can cause death could include anything from 10 years to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh or three times the drug’s value. confiscated. To date, none of Digital Vision has been penalized and all defendants are on probation. Just like in the case of Maiden Pharmaceuticals, Digital Vision also relapsed with seven cases between 2014 and 2019 in which the company’s products were found to be “not of standard quality.”
In 2014, Maiden Pharmaceuticals was one of 39 Indian pharmaceutical companies blacklisted by Vietnam for quality issues. In 2015 its product was poor in Gujarat and in 2017 the company was penalized in Kerala. However, it has continued to supply drugs in the state, as is evident from the fact that its products were found to be substandard at least five times in 2021 and 2022 in Kerala.
Maiden Pharmaceuticals, founded in 1990, has manufacturing units in Kundli and Panipat in Haryana and Solan in Himachal Pradesh, based in Pitampura, Delhi.
DEG deaths in India are not new. In addition to the 12 children who died in Jammu in 2020, there were 33 deaths in Delhi in 1998, 14 deaths in Mumbai in 1986 and 14 deaths in Chennai in 1973. However, the CDSCO said that death reports have not yet been provided by the ‘WHO to the CDSCO ”. DEG is used as a solvent in some drugs, but the permitted level is very low, only 0.1% to 2% in India.
TOI’s mail and messages to CDSCO seeking an answer on the issues raised here did not elicit any response until it was time to go to press. The story will be updated online if and when we have one.
