Govt forms panel to study WHO reports on deaths linked to 4 Indian syrups

New Delhi, Oct 12: The central government has formed a four-member panel of experts to probe the details and adverse event reports received from the WHO on the deaths of 66 children in Gambia being linked potentially to the four made-in-India cough syrups.

The panel is chaired by Dr Y K Gupta, Vice Chairperson, Standing National Committee on Medicines and has Dr Pragya D Yadav, National Institute of Virology-ICMR, Pune; Dr Arti Bahl, Division of Epidemiology. National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi; and A K Pradhan, Joint Drugs Controller(I), CDSCO as members.

The committee will recommend further course of action to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) after examining and analysing the adverse event reports, causal relationship and all related details already shared by or to be shared by the World Health Organization.

The deleopment comes on a day Haryana government has passed an order to stop the production of cough syrups manufactured by the Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

"Samples of 3 drugs mentioned by WHO of Sonipat's pharmaceuticals company were sent to Central Drug Lab in Kolkata. The reports are not in yet, action will be taken after that," ANI quoted Anil Vij in a tweet.

He said that after the Central and Haryana state drug departments conducted a joint inspection around 12 flaws were found.

The pharma company has been asked to give a reply to the notice by October 14 and action will be taken if it fails to respond.