Deadly Indonesian cough syrup that killed over 200 children was almost pure toxin
Oct 14,2023
An Indonesian drug manufacturer utilised chemicals with toxic concentrations of up to 99% in 70 batches of medication, according to prosecutors in a court filing. The cough syrup is one of the products linked to the deaths of more than 200 children last year.
JAKARTA, - An Indonesian drugmaker whose cough syrup is among products linked to the deaths of more than 200 children last year used ingredients with toxin concentrations of up to 99% in 70 batches of medicine, prosecutors said in a court filing.
The accusations against drugmaker Afi Farmawere made in a court in Kediri, in the province of East Java, where the company is based, and Reuters is the first to report the charge that it used highly toxic ingredients.
The criminal case comes as efforts grow worldwide to tighten oversight of drug supply chains after a wave of poisonings linked to contaminated cough syrups that killed dozens more children in countries such as Gambia and Uzbekistan.
Two batches of propylene glycol, a key base for syrupy medicines that Afi Farma received from October 2021 to February 2022 and used in its cough medicine, contained instead as much as 96% to 99% of a toxic substance, ethylene glycol (EG), a charge sheet in the case showed, in an undated court filing.
When asked who had carried out the testing and how, prosecutor Ikhsan Nasrulloh told Reuters it was done by police last year.
A lawyer for Afi Farma, Reza Wendra Prayogo, told Reuters no accusation of intentional poisoning had been proved against the company, adding that Indonesia's drug regulator, BPOM, did not require drugmakers to do a rigorous testing of ingredients.
He said a 2018 BPOM regulation allowed drugmakers to use tests done by raw material suppliers, requiring them only to run "identification tests" that do not stipulate toxicity testing.
BPOM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Afi Farma is one of four companies Indonesian police have charged in an investigation into the supply of tainted cough syrups, with a court case set to be heard on Oct 18.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says the safe limit for the known toxins EG and diethylene glycol (DEG) is no more than 0.10%, based on global standards.
Indonesia's health ministry also adopted that limit in its 2020 guidelines on drug standards.
Source: Economic Times