Maiden Pharmaceuticals, which is being investigated by regulators after the WHO issued a warning that the company’s cough syrups could be linked to the deaths of children in The Gambia, has a long history of producing inferior pharmaceuticals.
More than 60 children in The Gambia died from acute kidney damage allegedly caused by using “dirty” drugs made by the Haryana-based company. The Gambia promptly initiated a door-to-door drive to rid the country of cough and cold syrups.
“The World Health Organization has issued a medical product alert for four contaminated medicines identified in The Gambia that have been potentially linked to acute kidney injuries and 66 deaths among children,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement released on Wednesday.
The products were identified as Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Magrip N Cold Syrup by the WHO. For more than a decade, the pharmaceutical industry has been mired in controversy. The Bihar government blacklisted this company in 2011 for delivering subpar medications.
Controversies
According to the government of India’s Xtended Licensing, Laboratory & Legal Node (XLN) database, at least six times in the last nine years, Gujarat and Kerala have reported poor batches of medicine made by Maiden. A drug inspector from the Indian government punished the company in 2018 for quality violations under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
A Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Kerala penalized the corporation Rs 1,000 a year earlier, in 2017, in response to a prosecution launched by a Drug Inspector in Kerala in 2005. In 2014, Vietnam blacklisted 39 enterprises for violating Quality Control Regulations and Drug Regulations.
In response to the present incident, one of Maiden’s directors issued a statement indicating that the company was attempting to learn more about the deaths of children from its buyer in the Gambia. “We’re trying to figure out what’s going on because it only came up this morning,” Naresh Kumar Goyal told Reuters. “We’re trying to figure out what occurred with the buyer and everything. In India, we do not sell anything.”
“Maiden Pharmaceuticals is primarily present in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. According to its website, the company’s corporate office is in Pitampura the National Capital, and it has two manufacturing plants in Haryana, one in Kundli and one in Panipat. It describes itself as a WHO-GMP and ISO 9001-2015 certified pharmaceutical company. On November 22, 1990, the company began operations.
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