Gujarat Firm Blamed For Eye Drop Infections By Sri Lanka, Probe On

A Gujarat-based company has been accused of supplying poor quality eye drops in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government, in a complaint to the Indian government, said that the eye drops supplied by the company, Indiana Ophthalmics, have caused eye infections in more than 30 people.

The allegations have invited a notice to the company by India's top pharmaceuticals export council, which has sought an explanation from the company on the internal investigation within the next two days.

Pharmexcil - an agency that functions under the ministry of commerce and industry - sent the show cause notice to Indiana Ophthalmics on Thursday. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation has also launched an investigation into the quality concerns over Methylprednisolone eye drops produced by the firm.

"Alleged supply of contaminated eyedrops by your company has brought a bad reputation to the Indian pharma industry and is also likely to have an impact on the trust of international agencies on Indian pharma export, " Udaya Bhaskar, director general of Pharmexcil, said in a letter to Indiana Ophthalmics.

The company has denied quality issues in the eye drops supplied by the company.

This is the fourth such incident in a year when Indian-made drugs are being declared contaminated in other countries.

In April, a Chennai-based firm was linked to three deaths and blindness in the US. Following the allegations, samples of eye drops made by the firm, Global Pharma Healthcare, were inspected by Tamil Nadu's Drug Controller and Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation and the results "came in favour" of the firm. 

However, just to be "on the safe side", the pharmaceutical company was asked to "halt the production of the eye drops", sources in the Health Ministry told NDTV.