Unhealthy practices

Regulatory vigilance on pharma needs a relook

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India’s reputation as “pharmacy to the world” has taken a knock with the death of 14 children who consumed a cough syrup contaminated with industrial solvents typically used in paint, ink, and brake fluid.

True to form, the state and central government apparatus has been galvanised into action after the tragedy, arresting the doctor who prescribed the cough syrup, launching a police investigation of the manufacturers of the cough syrup, instructing state health authorities not to prescribe cough syrups to children below the age of two years even as state governments started banning the sale of the offending medication. This flurry of action does not disguise the fact that this was a wholly avoidable tragedy, which points to awilful application of inadequate regulatory vigilance, for which some infants have paid the price.