brand logo

Docs’ group raises concerns about ‘low’ quality drugs

28 Oct 2022

BY Dinitha Rathnayake  The Medical and Civil Rights Professional Association of Doctors raised concerns over what they termed ‘low-quality’ medicines entering the local market. Speaking to The Morning, Association President Dr. Chamal Sanjeewa said that they have concerns over paediatric drugs with high levels of toxic content, manufactured by the Indian Company Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued an alert over four contaminated medicines manufactured by an Indian pharmaceutical company that has been potentially linked with acute kidney injuries and 66 deaths among children in Gambia. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “The four medicines are cough and cold syrups produced by Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd. in India and we are conducting further investigations with the company and the regulatory authority.” However, National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) Chief Executive Officer Dr. Vijith Gunasekara, speaking to the media, said that the medicine manufactured by this Company has not arrived in Sri Lanka in a legal manner but that it could reach the country in illegal ways, and that the public should therefore only take medicine from registered doctors and pharmacies. “This Indian company not only sells paediatric drugs, but also sells antihypertensive drugs. If the NMRA says that they cannot guarantee about illegal pathways, so what about the unregistered pharmacies in coastal areas in Sri Lanka. They usually get low-quality drugs that should be raided by the NMRA,” claimed Dr. Sanjeewa. According to him, it is not only drugs, but also some cosmetics that are not regulated by the NMRA. “Are we waiting until someone dies, just like in other countries, in order to take action against them?”  Meanwhile, the four products in question are the Promethazine oral solution, the Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, the Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Magrip Cold Syrup. The manufacturer of these products is Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Haryana, India, and “to date, the stated manufacturer has not provided guarantees to the WHO on the safety and quality of these products,” the WHO said. The WHO Chief said that while the contaminated products have so far only been detected in Gambia, they may have been distributed to other countries.     


More News..