Indian Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday confirmed that New Delhi was in “regular touch” with Uzbekistan regarding reports of child deaths, allegedly because they had taken toxic cough syrup in Samarkand.
According to Mandaviya, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), India’s federal drugs regulator, has been in touch with the respective authorities of Uzbekistan since 27 December.
A “joint inspection” of the manufacturing facility of Marion Biotech has already been carried out by CDSCO and drug inspectors from the state of Uttar Pradesh, where the firm's plant is based.
“Samples of the cough syrup have been taken from the manufacturing premises and sent to the Regional Drugs Testing Laboratory, Chandigarh, for testing,” the Indian minister said.
The statement came after Marion Biotech’s legal representative said that the cough syrup has stopped being manufactured for now.
18 Children Die in Uzbekistan, Allegedly After Consuming India-Made Cough Syrups
Uzbekistan’s Health Ministry said that 18 children have died over a period of two months because of an overdose of Dok-1 Max syrup made by Indian company Marion Biotech, based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
Uzbek authorities said that all the fatalities occurred after victims showed signs of acute respiratory illness, adding that the medicine shouldn’t have been prescribed in the first place because of a high content of paracetamol, which was "incorrectly used" as an "anti-cold remedy".
The official spokesman of India's Foreign Ministry, Arindam Bagchi, said during his weekly press briefing on Thursday that Uzbekistan has yet to take up the matter “formally” with the Indian government.
New Delhi also extended consular assistance to the representative of the Indian company who are under investigation in Uzbekistan for their alleged links to the Indian company.