Gambia to add restrictions on Indian cough syrups

All pharmaceutical products from India will be inspected and tested before shipment from July 1, as per Gambian government documents. 

The new restriction comes after the death of at least 70 Gambian children was traced back to Indian-made cough syrups, Reuters reported. 

India, having a $42 billion pharmaceutical industry, accounts for nearly half of Africa’s pharmaceutical supplies. Following the cough-syrup-linked deaths, the Indian government stated in April that its officials had conducted meetings to ensure that the drug exports from the country would remain unaffected.  

The inspection routine is Gambia's attempt to "address issues related to substandard and falsified (counterfeit) medicines entering the country", Markieu Janneh Kaira, the executive director of its Medicines Control Agency (MCA), told Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi,  India's drug controller general, in a letter dated June 15.

In the letter, Janneh Kaira revealed that the MCA had appointed Quntrol Laboratories, a Mumbai-based pharmaceutical inspection and testing company, to handle the new inspection routine. All shipments coming from India would have to be issued a so-called Clean Report of Inspection and Analysis (CRIA).

"Quntrol shall conduct document verification, physical inspection of the consignment and sampling, for laboratory testing for each shipment," Janneh Kaira wrote.

"If conformity is established at all levels, Quntrol shall issue the mandatory CRIA document. If conformity is not established with regards to the quality of the product, the shipment will be quarantined or seized by the MCA and the necessary regulatory actions shall be taken," the MCA executive director added. 

The new rules are applicable to “India for now only”, Janneh Kaira informed Reuters. Since June 1, India has adopted rigorous testing policies for its cough syrups prior to exporting.

Earlier in October 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an alert informing that four cough syrups in Gambia, made by India-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals, were of substandard quality. The cough syrups were linked to the death of children in Gambia, many of whom were under the age of 5.