PremiumProduction licence of Marion Biotech company has been seized by Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration department
The World Health Organisation is still gathering information regarding the death of 18 children in Uzbekistan who allegedly died after consuming medicines manufactured by India-based Marion Biotech.
WHO in an official email to the news agency ANI said, "We are in touch with the Uzbek authorities and are still in the process of gathering information and validating these reports."
Meanwhile, the production licence of Marion Biotech company has been seized by Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration department on Tuesday.
"We have suspended the production license of Marion Biotech company after not providing enough documents, show-cause notice was also given by the state licensing authority depending upon the documents asked during the inspection which they didn't provide," said Gautam Buddh Nagar Drug inspector Vaibhav Babbar.
He further said that sample results are still pending.
Meanwhile, Marion Biotech Pharma Company legal head Hasan Harris informed ANI that the productions have been halted till the factory inspection.
"We await the reports, factory was inspected. We've halted the production of all medicines. It needs to be found why cases came from a single hospital there. Our products go to other countries as well," he added.
Earlier this month, Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya had notified the same on Twitter, "All manufacturing activities of Marion Biotech, in Noida, stopped in view of reports of contamination in cough syrup Dok1 Max."
"Joint inspection of Noida facility of Marion Biotech, was carried out by UP Drug Control & CDSCO team. Further action is underway. Samples of cough syrup taken from manufacturing premises & sent to Regional Drugs Testing Laboratory, Chandigarh for testing," the minster had tweeted in December.
Before Uzbekistan's claims, there were reports linking the deaths of 70 children in Gambia to cough syrups manufactured by Haryana-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals earlier this year. The Drugs Controller General of India had claimed that the WHO drew a premature link.