Editorial: Children’s death, a collective shame
India’s pharma success story cannot rest on cheap generics alone. It must be backed by credibility, stronger audits, criminal liability for negligence and swift justice
One wonders how many more innocent children will have to die before the authorities wake up from their deep slumber and enforce strict standards in drug manufacturing. It is a collective shame that in a country that claims to be the pharma capital of the world, the drugs meant to save lives end up taking them. The death of 12 children in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan due to contaminated cough syrups comes as yet another stark reminder of how lapses in drug quality can turn routine treatment into a fatal risk. The kids were allegedly given a generic cough syrup found to contain dangerous levels of an industrial chemical. As many as 11 children in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara have died due to renal failure after they consumed the ‘Coldrif’ cough syrup, manufactured by a Tamil Nadu-based pharma company. A lab test revealed that it contained 48.6 per cent diethylene glycol, an industrial chemical used in anti-freeze and brake fluids. It is highly toxic and is known to cause acute kidney failure, which can prove fatal. Responding to the tragedy, the Centre has promised a massive crackdown on all drug makers found to be compromising quality. However, such empty reactions after a tragedy mean nothing to the grieving families. The deaths could have been prevented with a proper regulatory mechanism and maintenance of quality standards. And this is not the first such tragedy. In 2020, a cough syrup, contaminated with diethylene glycol, claimed the lives of 12 children in Jammu’s Udhampur district.
The families are still waiting for justice. Accountability for such deaths continues to be evasive. Internationally, too, India’s reputation suffered serious damage when child deaths in Gambia and Uzbekistan in 2022 were linked to cough syrups manufactured and exported by Indian pharmaceutical firms. The twin tragedies had cast a pall over India’s pharmaceutical industry, which makes a third of the world’s medicines. India’s pharma success story cannot rest on cheap generics alone; it must be backed by credibility. Stronger audits, criminal liability for negligence and swift justice are essential. Without them, every such tragedy chips away at public trust — the most vital ingredient in any medicine. Though the Union government has been insisting on stricter adherence to revised manufacturing practices and periodic inspections, the enforcement remains patchy. State regulators lack manpower, and penalties are rarely effective. For instance, of the 655 pharmaceutical units in Himachal Pradesh, a major pharma hub, barely 122 have registered to upgrade under revised norms of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). That means most units continue without certifying compliance with the quality standards. It exposes regulatory weakness and a reluctance among smaller firms to invest in safer processes. India may take pride in earning the tag ‘pharmacy of the world’, but along with it comes the responsibility of ensuring the strictest standards for products that can make a difference between life and death.
