Banjul, December 21, 2022 (PPI-OT):The health committee of The Gambia has concluded that cough syrups made by Indian pharmaceutical company were responsible for the acute kidney injuries (AKI) seen in 70 children in the West African nation earlier this year. The select committee on health of Gambia’s parliament, known as the National Assembly, stated this in its report that cough syrups made by Haryana-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals were responsible for the acute kidney injuries (AKI) that led to death of 70 children in Gambia from June to October 2022. The report was submitted on December 20, 2022.
“The Select Committee is convinced that Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is culpable and should be held accountable for exporting the contaminated medicines that was linked to the death of at least 70 children in The Gambia in 2022,” the report states. It noted that “all the cases of AKI are linked to the consumption of the contaminated medical products imported by Atlantic Pharmaceuticals and manufactured by Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd India”. It added that the “actual cause of death of these children is still under scientific investigations as causality test[s] are currently being undertaken by the Ministry of Health and partners.”
The committee was mandated by the National Assembly on October 26, 2022, to “conduct a full-scale parliamentary inquiry into the matter of the AKI and related deaths with a view of unearthing the truth and circumstance surrounding this unfortunate incident, and to advise the Assembly accordingly”. It spoke to 16 stakeholders including government bodies, health institutions, scientific institutions, AKI Victims Association and Justice for 66+children – a group comprising parents whose children died, and their sympathisers) – among others.
The drug regulator of Gambia, Medicines Control Agency (MCA), informed the select committee that a Switzerland-based lab had found that the four cough syrups made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals – Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup – contained unacceptably high levels of diethylene glycol (DEG) and alludes to results a Switzerland-based laboratory. The report of the Swiss lab, which was assigned by the World Health Organisation to test samples of the four cough syrups in question, had found out that these samples contained DEG up to 21.3%. The WHO had issued a product alert against the said products on October 5, 2022.
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