Owner of Kundli pharma firm joins probe

Sonepat, October 7

A joint team of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) and the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) continued with its investigation at Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited at the HSIIDC, Kundli, for the second consecutive day today. A director-cum-owner of the company joined the investigation.

The state drug control authorities, however, remained tight-lipped on the issue and didn’t answer any queries, despite repeated attempts.

Under wHO’s lens

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• The company owned by Naresh Goel and his son Vivek Goel of Delhi, started manufacturing medicines in 1990. It has a medicine manufacturing plant in Sector 25, Panipat, also
• The company is under the lens of regulators after the WHO issued an alert saying the firm’s cough syrup could potentially be linked to the death of children in Gambia. The firm has presence in Africa, South America and South East Asia

The company is under the lens after the WHO issued an alert saying the firm’s cough syrup could potentially be linked to the death of children in Gambia.

The company owned by Naresh Goel and his son Vivek Goel of Delhi, started manufacturing medicines in 1990. It has a medicine manufacturing plant at Sector 25 of Panipat also. However, the plant at Panipat is registered by another name.

Vivek Goel, one of the directors of the firm, today joined the investigation with the team that collected various documents relating to the alleged cough syrup.

Sources said the authorities had also sought valid documents regarding the purchase of raw material, sale of products manufactured by the company and the exported stock. A team had also collected samples of the alleged cough syrup on October 1 and sent it to a laboratory for testing, they added.

The company employees also pasted two notices—an alert issued by the WHO and a notice issued by the Medicines Control Agency (MCA) of Gambia—at the company’s gate.

On October 4, the MCA, in its notice issued to the managing director of Atlantic Pharmaceutical Company, Westfield, directed a recall of the contaminated, substandard, and falsified medicinal products that were imported from Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited.

The MCA had asked the company to immediately recall all its products, including syrups, tablets, capsules, injections etc., and file a detailed report within seven days. It had also temporarily suspended imports from Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited.

Yesterday, a police team headed by the Kundli SHO had also visited the factory. DSP Rai Vipin Kadyan took stock of the situation as well.