Following claims that 18 children died in Uzbekistan after consuming Indian-made cough medicine, the central government has launched an investigation into the incident. The investigation was started against Noida-based drug manufacturing company Marion Biotech.
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (North Zone) and the Uttar Pradesh Drugs Controlling and Licensing Authority are jointly conducting the investigation. Samples of the cough medicine have been collected from Marion Biotech for testing. Production of the alleged cough medicine has also been temporarily halted.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandavya said that the samples of the drug have been sent to the Regional Drugs Lab in Chandigarh and the government will take action as soon as the test results are available. He also stated that since Tuesday, he has been communicating with Uzbekistan in this regard.
Marion Biotech company officials also responded that they are waiting for the drug’s test results. The government is investigating the incident. The company will also take action based on the results of the inspection. At present, the production of the drug has been stopped’ – said Hasan Raza, head of the legal affairs department of the company.
The statement of the Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan was that 18 children died after consuming ‘Doc-1 Max’ cough medicine manufactured by Marion Biotech Company in Noida. The Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan also claimed that the presence of ethylene glycol was detected in the medicine during the laboratory tests.
The statement says that the deaths occurred in children who took medicine as prescribed by pharmacists and parents and not as prescribed by the doctor. Children who took the medicine for two to seven days were later admitted to the hospital and died. With this, ‘Doc 1 Max’ tablet and cough medicine have been withdrawn from all pharmacies in the country. Seven employees were fired for not taking appropriate action in the incident.