CDSCO has also remained silent on the fact that “unacceptable” amounts of diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol, which are said to have killed children in The Gambia, also killed children in Jammu in January 2020 Is. The DEGs, which were found in the cough syrup manufactured by a different company, M/s. digital visionIt is located in Himachal Pradesh.
According to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940, the punishment for manufacturing or trading in spurious drugs that cause death shall be imprisonment for anything from 10 years to life imprisonment, and Rs 10 lakh or three times the value of the drug confiscated There may be a fine. Till date no one has been punished with digital vision and all the accused are out on bail. Just as in the case of Maiden Pharmaceuticals, Digital Vision was also a double offender with seven instances between 2014 and 2019 found to have the company’s products “not of standard quality.”
In 2014, Maiden Pharmaceuticals was one of 39 Indian pharmaceutical companies blacklisted by Vietnam for quality issues. In 2015 its product was found substandard in Gujarat and in 2017 the company was fined in Kerala. However, it continued to supply medicines in the state, as evidenced by the fact that its products were found substandard in Kerala at least five times in 2021 and 2022.
Maiden Pharmaceuticals, established in 1990, has manufacturing units at Kundli and Panipat in Haryana and Solan in Himachal Pradesh, with the corporate office located at Pitampura, Delhi.
DEG deaths are not new in India. Apart from the 12 children who died in Jammu in 2020, there were 33 deaths in Delhi in 1998, 14 in Mumbai in 1986 and 14 in Chennai in 1973. However, the CDSCO states that “the exact one-to-one causal link of death to CDSCO has not yet been provided by WHO. DEG is used as a solvent in some medicines, but the permissible level is very low.” , only 0.1% to 2% in India.
TOI’s mails and messages to CDSCO seeking their response on the issues raised here did not elicit any response till the time of going to press. The story will be updated online if we receive one.