Gambia have made mandatory all pharmaceutical products from India to be inspected and tested prior to shipment from July 1. 

Gambia’s Medicines Control Agency (MCA) said the new rule is to “address issues related to substandard and falsified (counterfeit) medicines entering the country”. 

The MCA executive director Markieu Janneh Kaira has written to his Indian counterpart Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi to notify him of the new restrictions on Indian made medicines, reports Reuters. 

The letter said that the MCA had appointed Quntrol Laboratories, an independent inspection and testing company for pharmaceuticals based in Mumbai, to issue a “Clean Report” of Inspection and Analysis (CRIA) for all shipments from India.

“Quntrol shall conduct document verification, physical inspection of the consignment and sampling, for laboratory testing for each shipment,” the letter said.

“If conformity is established at all levels, Quntrol shall issue the mandatory CRIA document. If conformity is not established with regards to the quality of the product, the shipment will be quarantined or seized by the MCA and the necessary regulatory actions shall be taken.”

The new restrictions followed the deaths of over 70 children in The Gambia last year from acute kidney injury. 

Gambian doctors linked the children’s deaths to cough syrups imported from Indian. 

Following the incident, the World Health Organization issued a global health alert. 

It said the India-made cough syrups contained lethal toxins ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol – commonly used in car brake fluid and other products not fit for human consumption.

These ingredients can be used by unscrupulous actors as a substitute for propylene glycol, which is a key base of syrupy medicines – because they can cost less than half the price – manufacturing experts say.