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'India will never bargain on quality of medicines': Health minister Mandaviya on cough syrup row
Mansukh Mandaviya's remark came as the WHO flagged seven Indian-made products in its investigation into alleged deaths linked to contaminated cough syrups.
Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday asserted that India will never bargain on the quality of medicines, and emphasised that the authorities are always vigilant to prevent any fatalities caused by spurious drugs.
The minister's remark came as the World Health Organisation (WHO) flagged seven Indian-made products in its investigation into alleged deaths linked to contaminated cough syrups. As part of its probe, the global health body flagged a total of twenty toxic medicines, the use of which led to over 200 alleged death across the world. The rest of the medicines belonged to Indonesia, WHO officials told NDTV.
The minister said that there is 'zero tolerance’ on spurious medicines and that 71 companies have been issued show-cause notices and 18 linked shops have been asked to shut. “We have conducted risk-based analysis at more than 125 companies and our squads have visited their facilities. Of these, 71 companies have been served show-cause notices and 18 have been given closure notices,” he told PTI.
"We are the pharmacy of the world and we want to assure everyone that we are the 'quality pharmacy of the world'," the minister added.
The row over India-made cough syrup was sparked after they were allegedly linked to a spate of child deaths in Gambia and Uzbekistan, respectively, last year.
India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally. It caters to about 50 per cent of global demand for various vaccines. In 2022-23, India witnessed an increase in the export value of cough syrups, reaching USD 17.6 billion compared to USD 17 billion in the previous year, 2021-22.
Following the reports of cough syrup-related alleged deaths in Uzbekistan, the World Health Organisation had flagged two India-made cough syrups for children as ‘substandard medical products’ in January. Both syrups were produced by Noida-based Marion Biotech.
Mandaviya said that on the questions are raised about Indian medicines, facts must be factored in. “…in Gambia, they said 49 children have died…we wrote to them asking what the facts are. No one got back to us with the facts,” the health minister said.
"We checked the samples of one company. We tried to find out the cause of death and we found that the child had diarrhoea. If a child had diarrhoea, who recommended cough syrup for that child? he questioned.
As of June 1, a new regulation has been implemented in India, making it mandatory for cough syrup exporters to conduct tests before exporting their products. According to a notification issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) last month, exporters are required to provide a certificate of analysis issued by a government laboratory for the cough syrups before they can be exported.
