Maiden Pharma guilty

NEARLY 10 years after a case regarding the supply of spurious drugs by Sonepat-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd to Vietnam was filed and prosecution initiated, the local court has finally ruled the firm guilty of producing substandard ranitidine hydrochloride tablets and sentenced its two directors to rigorous imprisonment of two-and-a-half years along with a fine of Rs 1 lakh each. Incidentally, it was the Consulate General of India in Vietnam that had informed the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) in December 2013 that Maiden Pharma was among the 46 Indian companies blacklisted by the drugs administration of Vietnam for violation of quality norms. While it is shameful that the incident dented India’s global image of being a reliable pharmaceutical hub, the case also highlights all that is flawed in an industry on which the health and lives of people, both domestic and foreign, are dependent.

Foremost, it exposes substandard and questionable quality control measures pertaining to drug manufacturers. The alarming frequency with which cases continue to come out points to a flourishing spurious drug trade, misuse of manufacturing facilities and lack of regulatory oversight. For example, in the Baddi-Barotiwala belt of Himachal Pradesh alone, the September-December 2022 period saw three cases where huge caches of spurious drugs manufactured by unlicensed firms were seized by the Drug Control Administration, including popular brands of several leading drug firms. To keep track of the production and movement of medicines, it is imperative that the drug control organisations are constantly reinforced and equipped with modern technology and skilled manpower in order to act on a real-time basis to intercept the defaulters.

This immediate red-flagging will also plug the other big gap in the system: the tardy prosecution of the culprits playing with the lives of consumers. Had Maiden Pharma officials been convicted earlier and its licence cancelled, it would not have caused another major international embarrassment to the country — the death of 66 children in the Gambia last year after the consumption of a contaminated cough syrup was allegedly linked to this firm.  

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