Poison for profit
The WHO has released an alert against four cough syrup products linked to sixty-six infant deaths in The Gambia. When I read that the deaths had been linked to kidney injury, my immediate thought—as any student of Forensic Files will appreciate—was of ethylene glycol and/or diethylene glycol poisoning. And, upon further reading…quelle surprise!
The WHO said that laboratory analysis of samples of the products "confirms that they contain unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminants".
All four products came from the same Indian manufacturer, Maiden Pharmaceuticals. My guess is that this was not a case of unintentional contamination per se, although the poisoning itself was surely an unintended consequence. I'm going to go out on a limb and conjecture that some dumfuk with an eye to nothing but profit margins decided to substitute cheap ethylene glycols for more expensive, and safe, propylene glycol or glycerin—which are common excipients for cough syrups and the like. Certainly, the company appears to have an uneviable track record.
If that wasn't bad enough, traces of the bacterium E. Coli were also found. The WHO, or at least the BBC News droid, didn't expand upon this. But to my knowledge, the most common, if not only, major source of E. Coli contamination is faecal matter. Yeuch!
The products were manufactured by an Indian company, Maiden Pharmaceuticals, which had failed to provide guarantees about their safety, the WHO added. The firm has not yet commented. The BBC has contacted Maiden Pharmaceuticals for comment.
I get the impression that Skeevy Pharma Pvt. Ltd isn't answering the 'phone.