Last week concluded with the grim news that at least 66 children in Gambia had died after consuming cough syrup manufactured in India and exported there sparking shock, horror and most importantly questions about the regulatory failure to police the quality of pharmaceutical manufacturing in India that has implications across the globe, especially in countries that depend on India’s cheap medicines.
The incident, as flagged by the World Health Organisation, has prompted a belated inquiry both in India as well as in Gambia but has been marred by Indian officials by and large seeking to wash their hands of any responsibility for the regulatory failure and with a minister even claiming that there was nothing to worry because the company -- Maiden pharmaceuticals -- only had an export licence and was not manufacturing the cough syrups for domestic use.
The statement is the epitome of callousness, but sadly is par for the course for those in responsible positions in the country. Besides being not entirely correct to the extent that there was nothing to prevent Maiden Pharmaceuticals from selling its products domestically, the statement has been issued with the sole purpose of trying to wash one’s hands of the responsibility of the regulatory failure and further to try and tell panicking Indian parents that they had nothing to worry about.
Rather than taking responsibility for the incident, promising to improve its licencing regime as well as announcing intentions for a more robust quality control mechanism, the authorities in India have been very tentative in their response.
This incident is not an isolated incident. There have been incidents in the past, including in India in which people and children have died after consuming substandard and adulterated drugs that make their way to pharmacy stocks largely owing to corruption in the licensing process both at the State and the central level. Maiden Pharmaceuticals was banned in the past with Vietnam imposing an import ban on medicines sold by the company. Yet there was no issue against the company even back then.
Despite the issue being serious, there has been no real move to hold the manufacturers to account -- given that a crime has clearly been committed even if the victims are in some far-off country in the third world.
India prides itself on being the world’s pharmacy and as a supplier of cheap generic drugs, especially to third-world countries that cannot afford to buy drugs from the first world especially after applying patent costs.
The country must do everything it can to protect this reputation as being able to supply cheap but safe and reliable drugs. On the global stage, a callous response to an issue as serious as this will serve to severely tarnish India’s reputation and prompt buyers to quickly shift to suppliers from China who are equally capable of manufacturing and exporting drugs for both the first and third-world countries.
The best way to do that is to rebuild our reputation through a stringent crackdown on irresponsible operators and corrupt officials including those at the highest levels. Anything short of that will only serve to further tarnish our reputation as a supplier of dangerous, unsafe and unreliable medicines.
