Login
Why Do Children in India Keep Dying From Toxic Cough Syrup?
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported:
Last month, parents in the central Indian city of Chhindwara noticed that their children were not recovering from ordinary colds and fevers. Within days, a strange situation became a terrifying one: some of the kids were experiencing kidney failure. Similar cases were reported in one other state. And by mid October, 24 children across the country had died.
The deaths have been connected to three types of cough syrup, all of which had been fatally contaminated: Coldrif, made by Sresan Pharmaceutical, Respifresh TR by Rednex Pharmaceuticals, and ReLife syrup by Shape Pharma. The level of contamination was alarming: Indian authorities found that the Coldrif was made up of nearly 50% diethylene glycol, a type of industrial antifreeze toxic to humans. The other two were contaminated by the same chemical in smaller doses.
In the last week, the owner of Sresan Pharmaceutical has been arrested and local authorities have revoked the company’s manufacturing licence. Shocking as it was, this event wasn’t a one-off. Our analysis of data from India’s medicine regulators showed that at least 12 cases of substandard cough syrup have been flagged since 2018.
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization published a joint report with the United Nations revealing that in a two-year period from 2022-24, it recorded more than 300 deaths connected to similarly contaminated medicine.
CEO of GSK Plays Down Its Role in FDA Effort to Approve Therapy for Autism-Related Condition
The CEO of the drugmaker GSK on Wednesday said the company has had a minimal role in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) effort to update the prescribing information of a long-shelved drug so that it can be used to treat a condition often associated with autism.
The FDA’s request that the company update the prescribing information for its decades-old therapy leucovorin is “an administrative request,” the CEO, Emma Walmsley, said during a panel discussion at the STAT Summit.
“We have no commercial interest, we have no scientific research, and we’re not pursuing it,” she added. “So it’s just the administration at this stage.”
Pfizer CEO Touts Trump Drug-Price Deal Amid Vaccine Doubts
Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said that vaccines are harder to get approved right now as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. looks to overhaul the country’s immunization policies.
“It’s not harder to get drug approvals right now, it’s harder to get vaccine approvals,” Bourla said Wednesday during a wide-ranging conversation with CNBC that waded into his company’s U.S. investments, deal with the Trump administration and the country’s current regulatory environment.
SC Offering Free Measles Vaccines Amid Growing Upstate Outbreak
South Carolina Daily Gazette reported:
Unvaccinated South Carolinians can get a measles shot for free at mobile vaccine clinics rolling across Spartanburg County over the next week amid an ongoing and growing outbreak. The state’s public health agency is offering the free shots as officials urge the unvaccinated to get a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
“We just continue to emphasize everyone to please take advantage of getting protection … as quickly as possible,” state epidemiologist Linda Bell said. The number of measles cases statewide reported so far this year rose to 16 this week, the highest number since the disease was eradicated more than two decades ago.
All 16 people were unvaccinated, and none had immunity from a previous infection, according to the state Department of Public Health. Health officials are now warning unvaccinated patrons of a Greenville gym, which offers day care for customers, that they may have been exposed.
Doctors Warn Flu Season Could Be Especially Dangerous as Vaccination Rates Lag
On a call with reporters Wednesday, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials Demetre Daskalakis and Debra Houry said the U.S. is heading into flu season underprepared, citing recent staff cuts and the absence of a major public vaccination campaign.
In previous years, the agency pushed a “wild vs. mild” message — that a flu shot could turn a severe infection into something much milder. At a CVS pharmacy in Stockbridge, signs offer “free shots,” but some customers are still hesitant.
“When I was in high school, I heard about people getting sick from the flu shot, and I don’t like being sick, so I just left it alone,” said Gary Grimes. Grimes said despite never getting a flu shot, he hasn’t had the flu — and he won’t be vaccinating his daughter.
America Is Heavily Reliant on China for Raw Materials in Medicines
A new analysis found that nearly 700 drugs approved for use in the U.S. depend on chemicals solely produced in China. For years, Democrats and Republicans have sounded the alarm about America’s dependence on China for medicines. An analysis published on Wednesday shows just how deep that reliance is at the earliest stage of the drug manufacturing process: Nearly 700 U.S. medicines use at least one chemical solely sourced from China.
As tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated in recent years, experts fear that this reliance could leave American patients vulnerable, especially if a trade war or future pandemic prompts China to curtail exports. Supply shortages for some generic medicines have already grown common.
The new data, from U.S. Pharmacopeia, a nonprofit that tracks the drug supply, identified the origins of chemicals used to make medicines. The analysis found that China was the sole supplier of at least one chemical in widely used antibiotics, like amoxicillin, and generic drugs for heart problems, seizures, cancer and HIV.
One example is the allergy-relief medicine best known by the brand name Benadryl. (Kenvue, the company that sells Benadryl, did not return a request for comment.)
There is almost no production of these chemicals in the U.S. because making them is dirty and labor and other costs make manufacturing them unprofitable. Chinese factories, by contrast, don’t face the same environmental restrictions and can make these raw materials inexpensively.
Demand for Unapproved Weight-Loss Drug Surges on Social Media
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned six online companies for selling compounded retatrutide, an unlicensed weight-loss drug that has gained traction among social media influencers. Five U.S. firms and one in Germany received similarly worded letters in September for selling products labeled as retatrutide, a compound developed by Eli Lilly that is still in clinical testing, without FDA authorization.
The agency said the companies violated federal law by marketing the unapproved drug and misbranding products that require medical supervision but lacked adequate directions for safe public use. The compound does not qualify for compounding exemptions.
“Retatrutide is an investigational molecule that is legally available only to participants in Lilly’s clinical trials,” a company spokesperson told MedPage Today in an email. “Anyone purporting to sell retatrutide for human use is breaking the law, and no one should consider taking anything claiming to be retatrutide outside of a Lilly-sponsored clinical trial.”
The warnings come amid surging online interest in retatrutide. An investigation by the Guardian found fitness influencers and sellers on platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram driving demand for the compound, which they promote for its purported fat-burning properties.
