- Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Jallow told Reuters that legal action was one option which the government was considering, indicating at a potential international litigation over the deaths.
By: Shubham Ghosh
The Gambia has roped in an American law firm to assess legal action after a government-backed probe found that contaminated medicines from India were “very likely” to have led to deaths of children in that country last year, the African nation’s justice minister Dawda Jallow told Reuters.
At least 70 minors, most aged below five, died of acute kidney injury between June and October.
Reuters reported earlier this year that local doctors in The Gambia suspected that cough syrups imported from India were likely behind the deaths and tests conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed that lethal toxins were present in the medicine, sparking a global outrage.
Jallow told Reuters that legal action was one option which the government was considering, indicating at a potential international litigation over the deaths. However, the minister did not reveal who would be the target of potential legal steps or name the law firm that was hired.
The medicines linked to the deaths of the children in The Gambia were manufactured by India’s Maiden Pharmaceuticals which denied wrongdoings. Tests by the WHO, however, found that the Maiden cough syrups contained the lethal toxins diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG) — used in car brake fluid.
The Indian government said its own tests on the drugs did not find any toxin.
While India’s health ministry and the pharmaceutical did not respond to requests for reaction on The Gambia’s possible legal step, the WHO also declined to comment, Reuters reported.
Indian officials have said the world health body could not prove a causal link to the Gambian deaths and accused it of denigrating its pharmaceutical industry worth $41 billion.
However, cough syrups made by another Indian drugmaker have been linked to deaths of 19 children in Uzbekistan. The South Asian nation has made drug-testing mandatory for cough syrups before export since then.
