Uzbekistan child deaths: Noida Police arrests 3 employees of pharma firm

New Delhi: The Noida Police on Friday arrested three people for manufacture and sale of duplicate medicines who are linked with the pharmaceutical firm that manufacrtured cough syrup whose use is alleged to have led to death some children in Uzbekistan last year.

The accused have been identified as Atul Rawat, Tuhin Bhattacharya and Mool Singh and were arrested from Marion Biotech Pvt Ltd. The case had been registered at Gautam Buddha Nagar Phase-3 Police Station under various sections of Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940.

A probe had been launched last year launched an inquiry into the Noida-based drugs manufacturer after deaths of 18 children in Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan had alleged that 18 children had died after consuming medicines manufactured by the company.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation had conducted an inpsection following reports from Uzbekistan and all manufacturing activities of Marion Biotech at Noida unit were stopped till the completion of inquiry.
The Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration Department had suspended the production licence of the company.