Cough syrup deaths will impact India’s reputation of being ‘pharmacy of the world’, says Anand Sharma

Former Commerce and Industry Minister urges Centre to fix accountability

Congress MP Anand Sharma. File | Photo Credit: PTI

The death of dozens of children in Gambia because of an adulterated cough syrup made in Haryana will impact India’s reputation as the ‘pharmacy of the world’, former Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said on Friday while urging the Centre to fix accountability and take urgent action.

Calling it a monumental tragedy, he said in a statement that the Indian government’s stance was unacceptable.

“India has a firm legal framework and regulatory mechanism on safety, quality and standard of manufacturing. No drug that fails the test of safety can be marketed, let be alone exported. The casual statements of government authorities and drugs regulator that these syrups are not sold in India and exported only to Gambia are not reassuring ...This is unacceptable and needs urgent course correction,” Mr. Sharma said.

Asserting that no drug could be exported without the Certificate of Pharma Products, Mr. Sharma asked how a syrup, adulterated with diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, could be given export permits.

“This incident is a wake-up call. India must revisit the regulatory framework to ensure national uniformity for certification, licensing, marketing and export. The tragedy in Gambia must not be allowed to cast a shadow on the reputation of Indian pharma Industry or provide an opportunity to entrenched global pharma lobbies to exploit this,” he said..

Mr. Sharma pointed out that the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry had assiduously built a reputation and global acceptability over decades. Arrival of Indian generics brought down the cost of life saving medicines and made them affordable in Africa and other developing countries.

That saved millions of lives and earned India recognition as “pharmacy of the world” but it also unsettled the vested interests of the well-entrenched pharma multinationals, he added.

“I consider it imperative to recall the formation of a Global Alliance of U.S. and European Pharma lobby and launch of an orchestrated campaign against counterfeit medicines targeting Africa to discredit India produced medicines and generic drugs in 2010-11. The campaign was effectively countered by India and [our] missions were activated. I personally engaged with African Ministers, and senior officials travelled to Africa and other developing countries. It was a hard-fought battle that India won,” Mr. Sharma noted.