The trial concerning the deaths of dozens of children in 2022 due to adulterated cough syrups imported from India opened on Tuesday October 24 in a court in Banjul, capital of Gambia, noted an AFP journalist. Justice Ebrima Jaiteh of the Banjul High Court adjourned the trial until November 7 after noting and denouncing the absence of three accused representing the state.
Some seventy children aged 5 or younger died in 2022 after drinking the over-the-counter drugs, sparking a national outcry in the small West African country of about 2.5 million. ‘residents.
Nineteen plaintiffs representing family members who died in July have filed suit in the High Court, according to Salieu Taal, president of the Gambia Bar Association and one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs.
The families are suing Maiden Pharmaceuticals, local distributor Atlantic Pharmaceuticals, the Medical Review Agency (MCA), the Department of Health and Attorney General Dawda A. Jallow. They also demand that the MCA recognize that it has failed in its statutory duty to regulate the quality and safety of medicines. They are seeking 15 million dalasis (around 215,000 euros) per child in damages. None of the five accused were present on Tuesday.
Acute renal failure
The Ministry of Health, the MCA and the Attorney General requested a delay in the start of the trial, a request which the judge rejected. He ordered all three parties to pay 10,000 dalasis (around 140 euros) to the complainants. The trial had already been postponed in July after the attorney general and the health ministry said they had not received subpoenas in sufficient time to familiarize themselves with the procedure.
The Gambia ordered in September 2022 the recall of several cough and cold medications, as well as all products manufactured by the Indian laboratory Maiden Pharmaceuticals, where the adulterated syrups came from. It then banned all of the Indian company’s products.
A presidential commission of inquiry in Gambia indicated in July that the children had died from acute kidney failure after taking these adulterated syrups. She also announced the dismissal of the director of the medicines control agency and his deputy and pointed out the responsibility of a supervising pharmacist who authorized the importation of syrups without carrying out the required checks.
Antifreeze
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), laboratory tests revealed “unacceptable amounts” of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which are commonly used as antifreeze and can be fatal if ingested. The toxic impact of these substances includes “acute kidney injury which can lead to death,” the agency said.
Speaking to AFP in October 2022, bereaved parents called on President Adama Barrow’s government to take action. “We want justice for these children,” they demanded.
Following this health scandal, India opened an investigation and shut down the production plant of the Maiden Pharmaceuticals laboratory in the north of the country in October 2022. The WHO launched a call in early 2023 for “immediate and coordinated action” to eradicate non-compliant and falsified medicines, in particular adulterated cough syrups. In total, at least 300 children in Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan have died after consuming these types of syrups.