RID Pharmaceutical Execs Charged with Manufacturing Adulterated Drugs that Killed Over 25 Children

On Monday, October 12, 2009; Mizanur Rahman and his wife Sheuly Rahman, two executives from RID Pharmaceuticals were formally charged in Dhaka court with producing toxic syrup that lead to the deaths of over 25 children.

In August 2008, the Directorate of Drug Administration filed the case against five officials of Rid Pharma for the manufacturing of substandard paracetamol syrup. In July 2008, the administration seized products and halted RID Pharmaceuticals’ production of all pharmaceuticals.

Further investigation and laboratory tests confirmed the presence of the toxic chemical diethylene glycol in spurious paracetamol syrup produced by Rid Pharmaceutical Company. Diethylene glycol, normally used in the textile and leather dying industries, was allegedly used in the preparation as a cheap but deadly substitute for propylene glycol.

Rid Pharma initially denied producing the paracetamol syrup linked to children's deaths, as reported in media. Officials of the drug company were quoted in the press as saying Rid Pharma "does not produce paracetamol syrup, but only suspension".

Bail hearing is set for Oct 19, 2009.

To view entire article view: bdnews24.com

Time: Call To Establish International Convention on Counterfeit Drugs

Peter Gumbel in the October 8th issue of Time magazine reported on the worldwide surge of counterfeit drugs.

In this excellent article, Mr. Gumbel notes:

• The World Health Organization (WHO) said "more than 50 percent of drugs sold online have either been falsified or altered in some way. And Internet sales are just the tip of a much bigger problem."


• Falsified medicines are especially prevalent in developing countries; the WHO estimates that up to 30% of drugs sold in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America are fake, including ones used to fight diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.


• The issue has long been a preoccupation of major pharmaceutical companies, which lose as much as $75 billion in business every year to counterfeit-drug makers, according to WHO estimates.


• The Pharmaceutical Security Industry tracked more than 1,800 incidents of drug-counterfeiting around the world last year, 10 times the number when it first started monitoring seven years ago. Getting governments and law enforcers around the world to work more effectively to counter the problem has proved hard.


• The Presidents of two African countries, Thomas Boni Yayi of Benin and Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, will be among a cluster of international dignitaries and industry experts who will make an international call for action against counterfeit drugs.


• There is a upcoming meeting in Benin which is “a worldwide campaign aimed at raising awareness of the problem and persuading governments to impose tougher penalties and improve routine testing of medications. The larger goal is to establish an international convention on counterfeit drugs as early as next year."


• When Pfizer recalled 120,000 packs of its cholesterol drug Lipitor in Britain in 2005 after it discovered a counterfeit version, it found that 60% of all the returned packs were fakes. Jacques Franquet, who heads security operations for the French drugmaker Sanofi Aventis, says his teams routinely find fake versions of about 15 of the company's drugs worldwide.


• Marc Gentilini, a French medical professor and expert on tropical diseases says the problem is urgent. The lack of clear international rules governing counterfeit medicines, he says, means that trafficking them is currently "less risky and more lucrative than trafficking narcotics."


• Certainly, there's now an abundance of evidence of brazen criminal activity. More than 80 babies in Nigeria died earlier this year from teething medicine that contained the toxic coolant diethylene glycol. In July, authorities in Bangladesh seized supplies of a poisonous acetaminophen syrup that had killed 24 children. In Argentina, several women died in 2004 after receiving injections of a falsified iron-based medicine to treat anemia. And in 2006 more than 100 people in Panama died after taking medicines made with fake glycerin. Many times, the counterfeit drugs just don't work. This leads to a large number of preventable deaths, particularly in the developing world.

To view the entire story, visit the following link: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1929147,00.html

Bangladesh: Tainted pain reliever kills 25 children

An Industrial solvent was added to a popular over-the-counter pain reliever rendering it toxic. It is estimate that the tainted paracetamol syrup is responsible for killing over 25 children in Bangladesh. Tests revealed that diethylene glycol was substituted for propylene glycol in the formula.

Diethylene glycol is often used as a solvent for dyes and resins. It is also used as a coolant, a substance found in antifreeze. Diethylene glycol is often illegally used as counterfeit glycerin in some nations and sold internationally as a component of cough syrup, toothpaste, and mouthwash because it is less expense than the legitimate ingredient. However, because it is toxic, this often leads to disastrous results.

In Bangladesh, twenty-five children age 1 to 5 have died in the past six weeks. According to authorities, the tainted medicine killed most if not all of the children. Most of the deaths have been reported in the district of Comilla, where the factory is. The plant has since been shut down.

Last year in the United States, two New Yorkers, Saifoulaye Diallo and Habib Bah, pleaded guilty to importing counterfeit Colgate toothpaste tainted with Diethylene glycol. In their testimony they admitted to buying the Chinese toothpaste and repacking it to look like the Colgate brand, but were unaware that the toothpaste itself was toxic. The packaging of the counterfeit toothpaste was mostly indistinguishable from real Colgate, although the wording did contain some spelling and grammatical errors. Additionally, the toothpaste was identified as being made in South Africa, in an effort to avoid scrutiny from customs officials.

These individuals and various additional importers of the tainted Chinese toothpaste sold under different brands popular at dollar stores and state institutions (such as prisons). The imports accounted for over a million tubes of counterfeit toothpaste distributed in the U.S. throughout several states between 2007 – 2008.

This along with other recent examples of substandard medications, emphasize the need to have molecular pharmaceutical authentication along the supply chain route to protect consumer sagainst toxic substitutions. To view more on molecular authentication, visit www.xstreamsystems.net.

Diethylene glycol, killer on the prowl

Nigerian death toll rises in tainted infant teething drug

The latest victims to greed are the smallest among us…….

Over 45 babies have died in Nigeria from the tainted teething syrup, "My Pikin Baby Teething Mixture". The medicine is contaminated with diethylene glycol, causing kidney failure in the children who died.

The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has shut down the manufacturer of "My Pikin", Lagos-based Barewa Pharmaceuticals, as well as a company called Tranxell Ltd, which is believed to have supplied chemicals to Barewa and possibly to other local drugs manufacturers.

Diethylene-glycol-contaminated products have had a long history in dealing death. This chemical, which is used in antifreeze, is sometimes added illegally as a cheaper sweetener or thickening agent with deadly results.
So deadly in fact, that the catastrophic deaths following its first use in medicines led to the passage of the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

In 1937 more than 100 U.S. citizens, many of them children, died when diethylene-glycol was added to an antibiotic to make the liquid form, Elixir Sulfanilamide.

And their deaths were painful as noted in a grieving mother’s letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt:

"The first time I ever had occasion to call in a doctor for [Joan] and she was given Elixir of Sulfanilamide. All that is left to us is the caring for her little grave. Even the memory of her is mixed with sorrow for we can see her little body tossing to and fro and hear that little voice screaming with pain and it seems as though it would drive me insane. ... It is my plea that you will take steps to prevent such sales of drugs that will take little lives and leave such suffering behind and such a bleak outlook on the future as I have tonight."

According to the World-wide Organization of the Health during the 1980's and 1990's more than 600 people were killed by this type of contamination.

Furthermore it continues still today and is becoming more prevalent. In 2007, Diethylene glycol was found in contaminated toothpaste manufactured in China. Over a hundred people died in Panama. That same year The New York Times reported that about 900,000 tubes turned up in the United States, including correctional facilities, juvenile detention centers, and some hospitals, as well as discount stores.

In today’s global economy ingredients can be manufactured anywhere and consumers rely on companies to look out for their safety. Authentication of raw materials is essential to ensure the safety of consumers and mitigate the risks of contamination to the finished product.