Centre forms committee to examine WHO details on 66 kid deaths in The Gambia
Darpan News Desk IANS, 12 Oct, 2022 11:00 AM
New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) The Centre has formed a four-member panel to examine the detailed report shared by the World Health Organisation on 66 children's deaths in The Gambia reportedly after using Indian-made medicines.
"The committee will examining and analysing adverse event reports, causal relationship, and all related details shared by WHO. After examining, the committee will suitably advise and recommend the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) about further course of action. The committee may co-opt any other technical expert as deemed necessary, an official source told IANS.
The WHO had issued an alert on four India-made cough and cold syrups "potentially linked with acute kidney injuries and 66 deaths among children in Gambia".
The committee will be chaired by Dr Y.K Gupta, Vice Chairperson, Standing National Committee on Medicines. The other members are Dr Pragya D. Yadav, NIV, ICMR, Pune, Dr Arti Bahl, Division of Epidemiology, NCDC, New Delhi, and A.K. Pradhan, JDC(I), CDSCO.
The WHO has informed that as per the tentative results received by it, out of the 23 samples of the products under reference which were tested, four samples have been found to contain Diethylene Glycol/Ethylene Glycol.
However, the global health body has not yet made available the certificate of analysis. It has informed that the same will be made available in near future. The exact one to one causal relation of death has not yet been provided by the WHO to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) although it has requested the global health body twice in this regard, sources told IANS.
After the CDSCO launched a detailed investigation to ascertain the facts, the preliminary enquiry has revealed that Maiden Pharmaceutical Ltd, Sonepat, Haryana is a manufacturer licensed by the State Drug Controller for products Promethazine Oral Solution BP, Kofexnalin Baby Cough Syrup, MaKoff Baby Cough Syrup, and MaGrip n Cold Syrup under reference, and holds manufacturing permission for these products for export only. The company has manufactured and exported these products only to The Gambia.
Meanwhile, the CDSCO and State Drug Controller Haryana have stopped all the manufacturing activities of Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd at Sonepat on October 11 on grounds of deficiencies found on local inspection.
Anmol Rattan Sidhu resigned from his post earlier in the day. In a resignation letter to Chief Minister Mann, Sidhu said he was resigning from the post owing to personal reasons. He was appointed to the post in March this year.
The DGP said the arrested persons had also tried to kill three associates -- Dagar, Fateh Nagar, and Kaunsal Chaudhary -- of Gangster Sukha Duneke when the police had brought them on production warrant in connection with kabbadi player Sandeep Nangal Ambia murder case.
The officials alleged that the said man instead of showing the licences as demanded, started shouting at the cops and also abused them. As the policemen tried to further persuade the owner, he and his nine staffers started pushing them out of the bar.
The major recovery comes after the Fatehgarh Sahib police had busted a pharmaceutical drug cartel after making a big seizure of over 7 lakh pharma opioids during a raid at an illegal storage godown in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, said Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sukhchain Singh Gill, who was addressing the weekly press meet.
The list of airports not having night landing facility also include airports like Kullu and Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, Bilaspur and Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh, Kalaburagi in Karnataka, Kolhapur and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra and and Ludhiana in Punjab among others.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, IGI Airport, Tanu Sharma said a complaint was received from the IGI Airport Immigration Department that one passenger came to immigration counter seeking departure immigration to Abu Dhabi. During scrutiny of his travel documents, it was found that a Russian business visa affixed on his passport was fake with no security features.
