A recent verdict by an Indonesian court mandated that two local companies pay damages to the families of those who were harmed by instances involving poisonous cough syrup. Around 200 Indonesian children perished in the case from acute renal damage brought on by tainted cough syrup, while the remaining 120 survivors experienced severe health issues and financial difficulties.
The court’s ruling, which was made public late on Thursday, requires supplier CV Samudera Chemical and medication manufacturer Afi Farma to make sizable payments. Families of children who survived but had major injuries will receive 60 million rupiah (about $3,850), while the families of each deceased child would receive 50 million rupiah. The settlement offered here is a far cry from the 3.4 billion rupiah per kid who passed away and the 2.2 billion rupiah each survivor that the parents had first demanded. In comparison, Indonesia’s GDP per person in 2023 was approximately $5,000.
Children ingested cough medicine contaminated with ethylene glycol (EG), a substance present in brake fluid and antifreeze, which sparked the disaster. High EG concentrations—up to 99% in some syrups—far above the 0.1% global safety guideline. Young individuals suffered acute kidney damage as a result, and several died. The country’s food and medicines agency (BPOM) and pharmaceutical businesses had serious control gaps, as the court found throughout lengthy hearings; nonetheless, neither the health ministry nor BPOM were found to have committed any direct misconduct in this case.
More than twenty plaintiffs on behalf of the victims’ families had already launched a civil lawsuit against the agency, the health ministry, and the involved businesses. Only Afi Farma and CV Samudera Chemical were deemed liable by the court’s decision, meaning that BPOM and the health ministry were not impacted by this specific case.
Afi Farma, which had previously been charged with a crime and had officials imprisoned for their carelessness in the case, voiced dissatisfaction with the civil decision. The company was discovered to have contaminated the syrups due to improper testing of the components provided by CV Samudera Chemical.
Given that the World Health Organization revealed in 2022 that tainted drugs have also resulted in child fatalities in the Gambia and Uzbekistan, the event fits within a larger trend of such cases.
The court’s ruling highlights persistent problems with pharmaceutical safety and regulatory monitoring in Indonesia, emphasizing the need for stronger responsibility and regulations to avert similar catastrophes in the future.
SOURCE :
THE PRINT
