India is one of the world's largest drug makers. Can the country's drugs be trusted?
over four India-made cough syrups thought to be linked to the deaths of 66 children in The Gambia. Lab analysis of the samples of a syrup made by a 32-year-old firm called Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited confirmed the presence of "unacceptable amounts" of diethylene glycol and another toxic alcohol called ethylene glycol.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has championed India as the "pharmacy of the world". India's traditional expertise in making generics has helped make it a formidable low-cost maker of drugs and become a global manufacturing base. In 2013, after a seven-year long investigation, top Indian drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories was ordered to pay a
Each failed sample typically represents a batch of the medicine, which in turn could run into hundreds of thousands of tablets, capsules and injections. "The total number of patients affected by such inferior drugs possibly runs into hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions over the last decade," says Mr Thakur, co-author of The Truth Pill, a piercing look at drug regulation in India.
India has been debating a law to recall drugs that have been found to be inferior from the market since nearly half a century. "All it has are guidelines, which many state regulators seem to be unaware of. Have you ever heard of a drug recalled in India?" says Mr Thakur.
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