Poor regulation causing hundreds of deaths from contaminated medicines globally, says WHO report

Telegraph

2 days ago

Weak regulation has allowed children's medicines like cough syrup and paracetamol to be laced with toxic industrial chemicals leading to hundreds of deaths, according to a report by the World Health Organization.
Since 2022, at least 300 people – mainly children in Africa and Asia – have died from cough and paracetamol syrups containing diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG): industrial chemicals that are used to make products like brake fluid and antifreeze.
The chemicals – a cheap replacement for medicinal glycol – are toxic in even small amounts and cause acute kidney damage that often proves fatal.
The WHO report, released jointly with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said 'criminal networks' were exploiting 'market volatility and regulatory gaps' to introduce these and other toxins into the supply chain in order to make quick profits.
'Most of the recent cases involve inexpensive oral liquid medicines that can be bought without a prescription,' said the report. 'In most cases these medicines were marketed specifically for children and are … available in pharmacies, medicine stores or informal street markets.'
In 2022, more than 150 children died in Indonesia from consuming locally produced cough syrups that had been laced with EG.
The manufacturer had marked 60,000 bottles of the lethal medication with fake labels showing only safe ingredients, the report said.
In the same year, at least 66 children, mostly under the age of two, died in the Gambia from acute kidney failure after consuming cough syrup containing DEG and EG, imported from India.
The medicines were produced by the Indian manufacturer, Maiden Pharmaceuticals, which was later discovered to have breached numerous regulations.
Two of the owners of the company received prison sentences, the report said.
Over the last three years, at least five batches of lethal cough syrups have been traced back to Indian manufacturers from countries including Uzbekistan, Cameroon, and Iraq. Some were found to contain over 20 times the safe level of EG .
Each contaminated medicine was produced by a different manufacturer, raising questions about the regulation of India's pharmaceutical industry.
Overall, the World Health Organization said at least 1,300 people have died as a direct cause of ingesting contaminated medicines over the last 90 years, and thousands more have suffered 'life changing injuries' – mostly in the developing world.
'In many cases, contaminated medicines are the result of intentional criminal conduct. Addressing this threat requires coordinated efforts by ... law enforcement agencies, customs officials, prosecutors and anti-corruption bodies,' the report said.