Uzbekistan has arrested four people in an investigation into the deaths of 19 children who drank cough syrup made by Indian drugmaker Marion Biotech, the Uzbek State Security Service said on Friday.
It said the two people detained were senior employees of the Scientific Center for Standardization of Medicine, who obstructed the proper testing procedures for Doc-1 Max cough syrup.
The other two were executives of Quramax Medikal, a company that imported Marion Biotech drugs.
Marion Biotech said last month that it had halted production of the syrup, shortly after the series of deaths. Read more
Uzbekistan’s health ministry said the syrup contained the toxic substance ethylene glycol and was given to children in higher than standard doses, either by their parents, who mistook it for cold treatment. , or on the advice of a pharmacist.
The Uzbekistan case comes after the deaths of at least 70 children in Gambia, which a parliamentary committee linked to cough and cold syrups made by New Delhi-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals. The company denied any wrongdoing and Indian government inspectors found no contamination in test samples.