Marion Biotech Limited from Noida has manufactured contaminated cough syrups. Singh Raghavendra Pratar is the CEO of Quramax medicals which imports medicines from Marion company.
Due to the "Dok 1 Max Syrup" produced by this company, in December 2022, initially 18 children died, as reported by Uzbekistan's Health Ministry. In the initial investigation, it was found that the medicine contained some sort of poison.
While consuming ethylene glycol and di-ethylene glycol, symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, difficulty in breathing, and severe kidney damage can occur, posing a serious risk. In this situation, out of the 86 children who took this medicine, 68 children died.
During the investigation in the Uzbekistan court, government prosecutor Syed Kareem Akilov has accused that the perpetrator has given 27 lakhs as bribe to evade quality checking in the production of cough syrups, aside from other offenses such as selling counterfeit medicines, falsifying reports, tax evasion, and giving bribes to officials.
Singh Raghavendra Pratar, an Indian, was sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison for his involvement. Additionally, former senior officials who were responsible for licensing medicines that caused poisoning were also sentenced to prison terms.
For the families of the 68 children who died due to the syrup, as well as four children who became differently abled as a result, the court ordered compensation totaling 80,000 US dollars (equivalent to 66,29,436 Indian rupees).
The court also ordered compensation ranging from 16,000 US dollars (equivalent to 13,25,887 Indian rupees) to 40,000 US dollars (equivalent to 33,14,718 Indian rupees) for the parents of the eight other children who were affected by the medicine.