Uzbekistan child deaths: Noida police arrest 3 employees of cough syrup company
The Noida Police on Friday arrested three employees of a city-based pharmaceutical firm, Marion Biotech, who were allegedly involved in the manufacturing and selling of duplicate cough syrup that allegedly led to the deaths of at least 18 children in Uzbekistan last year.
The accused have been identified as Tuhin Bhattacharya, Mool Singh, and Atul Rawat. The Gautam Buddha Nagar Phase-3 Police Station has registered a case against the accused under various sections of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940.
The arrests came after the drugs inspector of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) filed a complaint against the five officials, including three of its employees and two of its directors. The employees have been arrested while the two directors of the company are at large.
The CDSCO launched a probe into this matter after Uzbekistan claimed that Marion Biotech’s cough syrup Dok-1 led to the deaths of 18 children in the country.
Subsequently, the National Regulatory Body for Cosmetics, Pharmaceuticals, and Medical Devices inspected samples of the company’s drugs and found that 22 of them were not of standard quality because they were adulterated and spurious.
The National Quality Control Laboratories of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan conducted laboratory analysis of samples of both products, AMBRONOL syrup and DOK-1 Max syrup, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), both products contained unacceptable levels of diethylene glycol and/or ethylene glycol as contaminants.
Diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol are hazardous to humans when consumed and can be fatal, according to the international health organization. Toxic effects can include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, inability to pass urine, headache, altered mental state and acute kidney injury which may lead to death, it said.
The Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration Department suspended the production license of the company.
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