Samples Not Contaminated, Meets Standards: Centre Slams WHO Over Premature Links Between Children Deaths in Gambia and India-made Syrups

The World Health Organisation drew premature links between the deaths of children in Gambia and the four India-made cough syrups, India’s drug regulator DCGI has said in a strong statement slamming the WHO, reports Reuters.

“Samples taken from Indian pharmaceutical company Maiden Pharma, whose products were linked to the deaths of children in Gambia, have been found to comply with required specifications and were not contaminated,” authorities said in the latest statement to the WHO.

In the letter addressed to Dr Rogerio Gaspar, Director (Regulation and Prequalification) at WHO, DCGI’s Dr V G Somani said the statement issued by the global health body in October in the wake of the deaths “was unfortunately amplified by the global media which led to a narrative being built internationally targeting the quality of Indian pharmaceutical products”.

The DCGI also quoted media reports and said Gambia has claimed that there has been no direct causal relation established yet between the cough syrup consumption and the deaths, and that certain children who had died had not consumed the syrup in question, per PTI.

In the letter, Somani told WHO that the samples of four made-in-India cough syrups which were tested in government laboratory here were found to be complying with specifications and not to have been contaminated with DEG or EG according to the test reports.

Health authorities in India had announced a production halt at Maiden Pharmaceuticals’ factory in Sonepat in October after a WHO report said the company’s cough and cold syrups might be linked to the deaths of 69 children in Gambia.

According to Reuters, WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.N. agency had said in October that its investigators had found “unacceptable” levels of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which can be toxic and lead to acute kidney injury, in the products manufactured by Maiden Pharma.

The WHO’s statement in October, linking the deaths to the cough syrup manufactured in India, caused “irreparable damage” to the country’s supply chain of pharmaceutical products, Somani also said in the letter.

(With PTI & Reuters inputs)

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