'Killer’ Cough Syrup Manufacturer Sent To 10-Day Police Remand
CAG flags state’s procurement of banned drugs
Bhopal: Govindan Ranganathan, promoter of the Tamil Nadu-based Sresan Pharmaceuticals that manufactured the toxic cough syrup Coldrif, linked to the death of 25 children in Madhya Pradesh, was on Friday sent to 10-day police remand by a local court in Parasia in Chhindwara district in the state.
Meanwhile, the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report in 2024-25 questioned the drug purchase policy of the Madhya Pradesh Public Health Services Corporation Limited (MPPHSCL) facilitating procurement and distribution of medicines which were explicitly banned by the Government of India for human use.
Meanwhile, one more child, hailing from Chhindwara district, died of kidney failure in the hospital on Thursday taking the death toll, linked to cough syrup, to 25 in Madhya Pradesh.
The CAG in its 2024-25 report revealed that the corporation had entered into the rate contracts with the pharmaceutical companies for the purchase of drugs explicitly banned by the Centre and procured the prohibited drugs through local tenders at the district level.
The CAG had estimated the value of the procured prohibited drugs by the corporation at Rs 1.8 crore.
Among the banned drugs procured were fixed-dose combinations of Metronidazole & Norfloxacin (which is an anti-bacterial and anti-amoebic medication), prohibited since March 10, 2016, but supplied through contracts dated October 27, 2016, and July one, 2017, amounting to `32.1 lakh.
The drug, a combination of Azithromycin + Cefixime (which are antimicrobials), was banned in 2016, but procured through contracts dated July 7, 2018, and August 16,2020, worth `1.20 crore.
