Production stropped at four pharmaceutical firms, licence of six suspended

The Maharashtra government has stopped production at four pharmaceutical companies involved in manufacturing cough syrups while the licence of six others has been suspended after they were found violating the rules related to stability test

The Maharashtra government has stopped production at four pharmaceutical companies involved in manufacturing cough syrups while the licence of six others has been suspended after they were found violating the rules related to stability test. Show-cause notices have also been issued to 17 other firms, food and drugs administration minister Sanjay Rathod told the assembly on Friday.

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These companies were part of the 84 firms raided following the deaths of 66 children in The Gambia, a West African nation, after they allegedly consumed a cough syrup manufactured and exported by a Haryana-based firm.

Stability test is the process to determine, through storage at defined conditions and testing at specific intervals, how long a drug substance or product remains safe and effective at a particular storage condition.

Questioning the children’s deaths, BJP MLA Ashish Shelar said more than 2,000 medicines were being exported by 200 pharmaceuticals from the state without complying with the stability test. This is despite the World Health Organisation raising a red flag, he added.

Rathod said, “The company which is facing the charge of the violation of rules is Haryana-based and it has no manufacturing unit in Maharashtra. The central government has informed us that the deaths were not caused by the cough syrup. We have, however, taken strict action against the violators in the state.”

Presiding officer Sanjay Shirsat said if 20% of the manufacturers raided were found with violations, it needs to be taken very seriously.