Politicos and officials must ensure stringent regulation of drugs, foods

There is something wrong, terribly wrong, with regulation in India. Either it is so onerous and cumbersome that entrepreneurs get exasperated with the procedural rigors; or it is so lax that it looks like the authorities have let certain sectors do whatever businesses they want to do. The recent cases regarding misleading advertisements by Patanjali Ayurved Limited and allegations of substandard goods and masalas with dangerous ingredients highlight the pathetic state of regulation in the country. Patanjali has put the company and its co-founders Ramdev and Balkrishna in the dock for alleged unsubstantiated claims about their goods and maligning modern medicine for years.

They even managed to sell their product ‘Coronil’ as a cure for Covid-19, despite the fact there was no scientific or official confirmation for that. But neither the Central government nor any of the states did anything to stop the sale of Coronil, let alone check the myriad claims made by Ramdev. It was only when the Indian Medical Association (MA) filed a petition against him and Patanjali that their troubles with the Supreme Court began.

And it is because of the tough stand of the apex court that Ramdev has been forced to give an unconditional apology that his company was issuing misleading advertisements. The sugar content in Nestle’s baby products is in the news because of a recent report by a Swiss non-government organization called IBFAN. It claimed that the sugar content in Nestle’s baby products varies across nations, the highest being in South Asian (including India), African and Latin American countries. A few days ago, Singapore banned the sale of the products of Everest Food Products, the Indian company which specializes in spices. Soon after, another popular Indian masala maker, MDH, got into trouble with the authorities in Hong Kong.

While Singapore prohibited the sale of Everest products because of alleged detection of ethylene oxide at higher-than- permissible levels, Hong Kong banned both MDH and Everest products, citing the presence of a carcinogenic pesticide in several spice mixes. Ethylene oxide is a sterilizing agent. Laxity on the part of those responsible for regulating the quality of medicines and food can lead to unsavoury consequences including abroad. India’s image as a global pharmaceutical hub took a big hit when it was found that cough syrups made by some Indian companies allegedly led to dozens of deaths in The Gambia and Uzbekistan in 2022.

The World Health Organization accused Maiden Pharmaceuticals of exporting a syrup to The Gambia containing lethal chemicals ethylene glycol (EG) and diethylene glycol (DEG)—that are used as car brake fluid. Marion Biotech had sent cough syrup to Uzbekistan; it also contained EG or DEG. Both medicines and food products enter our bodies, so there can be no compromise in their quality.

We reiterate that manufacturers of substandard washing machine or television can trouble the customer in terms of money and customer satisfaction, but slackness on the part of a drug maker or an FMCG firm can have serious, even fatal, consequences. It is time that politicians and officials responsible for the quality of medicines and food woke up. They need to act in earnest and not restrict themselves to rhetoric if they value the health and wellbeing of people.