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Uzbekistan has started the trial on the death of 65 children which were linked to the contaminated cough syrup. This is the highest death toll before. Indian company Marion Biotech is the company that produced this cough syrup. Before this Tashkent had announced the death of 20 children.
The Uzbekistan Supreme Court said in a statement that there are 21 officials who are the defendants in the case. These are the ones who were enforced to be in charge of license and imported medicines checks.
India directed medicinal manufacturers to stop using the compound propylene glycol which they received from a Delhi-based firm.
India has already suspended the company’s production and arrested three of the Marion Biotech employees in March after the government laboratory found the samples adulterated. The Drug Controller General of India (DGCI) that the firm Maya Chemtech is the supplier of the required compound and has supplied to other companies as well.
This incident in Uzbekistan was the second one in a row after the Gambia one.
Marion regretted the deaths of the children.
Uzbekistan and the firm
According to the reports, Maya did not have a license to sell the drugstore the pharmaceutical materials, according to the sources, the syrup was made only for industrial grade use, which is rather used in liquid detergents, paints, and coating.
Last year the Uzbekistan health ministry warned about the use of unacceptable amounts of toxins which are Diethylene glycol (DEG) and Ethylene glycol (EG) which are not fit for human use. According to the World Health Organization when the price of propylene Glycol spiked, suppliers started to use cheap toxic compounds with the required chemicals.
Last year 70 children died in Gambia after taking the syrup. Previously a company from Indonesia was also linked to the death of more than 200 children there which tainted their reputation. The toxins were even found in cough syrups which were exported to Gambia by an Indian Company only Maiden Pharmaceuticals.
Gambia thus told the Indian regulator to check on this and make it mandatory for all products from the country to be inspected in the proper way.
Marion Biotech company is one of the flagship companies of the group Emenox, according to its people it is well known for its cosmetics, pharmaceuticals etc.
The Move to Counter
Three employees of the firm were arrested, one of them even claimed he had left the company. A lawyer for the firm in the Allahabad High Court did give the statement the drug was found to be not of standard quality but it was not adulterated and the ray of hope came when the court asked police from refraining to arrest the directors.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) slashed the Indian brand with its product being declared as substandard, the analysis of two cough syrup do involve Ambronol and Dok-1-Max, although they are well-known and accepted drugs in other countries as well.
Marion in a statement said that each of 20,000 bottles of 100 mL of Doc-1Max cough syrup was supplied geographically to the whole of Uzbekistan!
India is well known for its pharmacy and each and everyone have seen its proactive approach during covid when it came to supplying of the vaccines. It is currently producing one third of the world pharmacy and medicines. But it is under scrutiny after the incident and will be on a check!
World Health Organization had issued a warning on one the of the cold syrup that was sent to Iraq from India, the levels of the same chemical composition were not up to the mark, which brings the situation under surveillance
