Indian drugs, sold worldwide, sometimes deadly

Deaths thought to be linked to tainted cough syrups in The Gambia have drawn attention to loose regulations in India and the lack of testing capacity in poor importing countries.

They had fever, body aches, runny noses, the normal childhood stuff. The kind of illnesses a doctor would prescribe cough syrup for.

But the children only got worse. They developed persistent diarrhea and then couldn't urinate because their kidneys were failing. The very drugs that were supposed to make them better, simple cough syrups imported from India, killed them instead, as they turned out to be poisons.

En All, 70 children in the small West African nation of Gambia are believed to have died in recent months from Indian-made cough syrups. Among them was Muhammad Lamin Kijera, 2, who died on August 4. , Alieu Kijera, who works as a nurse in an eye clinic in Banjul, the Gambian capital. "How can they allow something like this in the country, destroying lives?" provide a lifeline to the developing world by selling drugs, many of them generic, for an array of diseases like malaria and AIDS at lower prices than American or European drugs.

But the deaths in The Gambia have sounded the alarm over what one expert has called a "dangerous cocktail": on the one hand, India's $50 billion pharmaceutical industry whose regulations has remained loose and chaotic despite repeated calamities, and on the other, poor nations with little or no way to test the quality of the drugs they import.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry, according to experts, is plagued by data fraud, inadequate testing and substandard manufacturing practices. While people around the world are taking Indian drugs every day without incident, regulatory weaknesses are giving the country's drugmakers the opportunity to save money and increase profits, experts say.

This has created a dangerous reality far more widespread than the occasional tragic mass poisoning, and could shake faith in Indian medicine in places that need it most.

ImageCough syrups collected for disposal in Banjul, Gambia in October.Credit. ..Milan Berckmans/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

"What happened in Gambia is happening in other African countries without us even knowing it ", said Michel Sidibé, the African Union special envoy for the African Medicines Agency, a new body aimed at harmonizing drug regulation across the continent.

"Most African countries do not have AC testing or well-trained regulatory bodies" , said Mr. Sidibé. "The African market is very fragmented, but due to poor regulation, drugs are flowing from one country to another."

India is the world's third-largest drug manufacturer by volume, producing 60% of global vaccines and 20% of generic drugs. In a sign of the global dependence on Indian medicines, the country's pharmaceutical exports grew by almost 20% in the first year of the pandemic, reaching $24 billion, despite lockdowns disrupting supply chains. supplies.

As a sign of approval of the quality of Indian medicines, officials point out that more than half of the medicines manufactured in India are destined for highly regulated: "one in three pills in the United States and one in four pills in Europe are sold from India," according to the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance.

C' is the other half where danger may reside.

Dinesh Th...