If India is the pharmacy of the world, it’s not doing a good job of providing safe products. A large number of children in the Gambia have recently died after ingesting cough syrup made in India. And in 2019, 11 children in India’s Jammu region died the same way. The cough medicine contained diethylene glycol, an industrial solvent.
Counterfeit and sub-standard medicines are only one of several problems India and the rest of the world face because of the country’s weak drug regulations.
A pressing problem is an explosion in the consumption of antibiotics in India where overuse and misuse are major contributors to the development of antibiotic resistance. India has one of the highest antibiotic resistance rates, estimated to be growing by 5%-10% annually. About 1.3 million people died in 2019 as a direct result of antibiotic resistance.
