The Pharmaceutical Companies Behind Cough Medicine Deaths In Children | Undercover Asia

The scary part is this seems a recurring problem and even worse, no one is being punished or jailed.

If you are manufacturing medicine, it’s your company's responsibility to test the raw ingredients BEFORE manufacturing the end product. The raw ingredient could be tainted during manufacturing, transport, storage, or industrial espionage. If you don’t want to do the test or buy the equipment to do so, then your company should not be in the drug manufacturing business in the first place. If testing is part of the cost to do that specific business, failure to take into account that cost will eventually lead to the downfall of the company. Lastly, my condolences to the families who have lost their children to this toxic medicine scandal.

7:05 The toxin found in the children cough syrup was Diethylene Glycol, a powerful INDUSTRIAL solvent, used as a cleaning agent, used for degreasing, as a solvent, found in paints, fuels, adhesives. How could anyone be so evil to let children drink poison? It’s so heartbreaking especially for the families, to see their children suffer permanent kidney failure, health issues, death.

I request CNA should make a documentary on Indian unqualified doctors

Why would the consumer need to check the validity of the medicine? Isn't its the manufacturer and the government's job to make sure the medicine is compliant and non toxic before releasing it for public sale? 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

This is so heartbreaking. I feel so bad for the parents and the poor children that suffered needlessly

In Australia medicated cough syrups for children under the age of 6 years have been banned for sale since around 2012. I feel so sad for all the people that have suffered tragic loss because some guys in a suit working selling cheap Pharma thought this would be ever be ok.

Thanks for alerting us. I never thought twice about opting for generic medicine before. Now I will check the country of manufacture before buying medication.

This is very terrifying and quality control is important. Just like the recent incident on eye drops that caused death, blindness and bacteria infections made by India pharmaceutical company and sold in USA. I happened to compare two different petroleum jelly and checked the manufacturer. I chose the one made in USA although it costs more. I’m not taking any risk.

In Uganda 🇺🇬, 80% of the medicine in the market is from India 🇮🇳. As a poor 3rd world country, there is a high probability of deaths happening and the authorities are not even aware due to lack of proper monitoring and evaluation of drug use.

Another great informative investigative journalism piece on the pharmaceutical industry and its controversies.

This is why you need to test all the raw materials and not be used until tested. This should be part of Quality Control and Quality Assurance. Any Pharmaceutical without these procedures should be accountable and punishable.

The entire Indian pharmaceutical industry and its governing government agency should be dismantled. No more drugs should be manufactured, much less exported. They've proven time and time again that not only can they not be trusted, they are a danger to the entire world. The victims and their governments should sue the Indian government and the Indian manufacturers.

If you read the instruction, the composition says about propyleneglycole, which is ok to consume, but after several death cases it was rechecked and found ethyleneglycole, which you cannot even taste. Speaking with a farmacy worker in Kazakhstan, found out that this syrup had been in sale much time before the death cases arrived and there were no such cases. Only since 2022 came out such cases. So it makes to suppose that the first lot was made and checked according the norms, after the manufacturer changed the ingredient to make the product cheaper for him, but the new lot passed without new control, it means. So, the control of every lot is important.

This is horrible, not only for the world but for the Indian consumers as well. Great presentation, Hopefully the government will take strictest action against these greedy money hungry people who put money over human life. One of the reasons why i prefer trusted brands over new brands. Pathetic!

Regulation problem. Legislation should be done to stop this madness.

"On New Year’s Day, 4-year-old Isha Darboe died at the Edward Francis Small hospital in Gambia. She’d been dosed from a bottle of anti-nausea syrup that had somehow escaped the recall. Her father, Lamin Darboe, says he had heard about bad medicine circulating in the country, but a woman at the pharmacy had assured him this one was fine. At his home in a fishing village on the Atlantic coast, Darboe lights a cigarette and scrolls through photos on his phone. There are dozens of Isha — showing off new dresses, posing with her younger brother, sticking her tongue out for the camera. She had been looking forward to starting school this year when she would have turned 5. He tears up when he recalls her final days in the hospital. Too weak to speak, she communicated with her father mostly by pinching him, he says. “She was dying in pain.” He scrolls to another snapshot: a picture of the box of Maiden drugs that killed his daughter, an “M” logo indicating its maker. The liquid in the 100-milliliter bottle had completed an astonishing odyssey made possible by the pharmacy of the world, crossing seas and oceans to wind up in Isha Darboe’s mouth. National borders meant nothing — until it came time to determine what went wrong." https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-07-10/poisoned-cough-syrup-traced-to-india-reveals-gaps-in-regulation

I'm from India and in all these years we have only legalized, organized and committed to corruption. Those licenses suspended are done to save face in international market. Same thing happens in India from Indian and other brands doing business in India and there's not a single discussion complete pin drop of silence. Use Indian products or engage with Indians with caution.

I have always made my own cough syrup which is just as effective. All I use is olive oil, fresh lemon juice, ginger and honey. I blend these together in a pan gently warmed (don't boil) and strain into sterilised bottles, this will keep for a long time refrigerated.

If they couldn't even afford to test yet, then don't produce..! I'm so so sorry for your lost, my heart aches for you moms.