Indian pharmaceutical company Maiden Pharmaceuticals is being sued by the families of 20 Gambian children whose deaths were linked to toxic cough syrups made by the company, reports Reuters.
The filing, which has not yet been made public, opens a new front in the fight for compensation and justice after at least 70 children, mostly babies and toddlers, died from acute kidney injury in Gambia last year.
The filing was presented to the High Court of Gambia last Friday: the families seek about $250 000 in compensation for each child, amounting to about $5m for the 20 children represented.
They are also suing Gambia’s Health Ministry, its regulator, the Medicines Control Agency, and Atlantic Pharmaceuticals, a local distributor of the tainted drugs.
This incident, and the deaths of about 20 other children in Uzbekistan, has raised concerns about lax regulation in India’s $42bn pharmaceutical industry, as well as a lack of testing capability in poorer nations such as Gambia that have no drug-making facilities.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
More countries affected by toxic cough syrups
Gambia hires US legal team over Indian cough syrup deaths
India cancels licence of company linked to deadly cough syrups