Bhopal:
How would you price the life of a child? How would you assess its worth? It seems impossible to do, right?
For the doctor who prescribed the cough syrup to most of the 23 children who died after having it in Madhya Pradesh, however, the answer was simple, and abysmally low: Rs 2.54. That was the amount he would get as 10% commission for every bottle of Sresan Pharmaceuticals’ Coldrif cough syrup – sold for Rs 24.54 – that he prescribed.
Police allege that Dr Praveen Soni, a paediatrician posted at Parasia’s government health centre, continued to prescribe the now-banned Coldrif syrup from his private practice after central government guidelines prohibited prescribing fixed-dose combination (FDC) medicines for children under four years of age.
The syrup, manufactured by Sresan Pharmaceuticals, a Tamil Nadu-based company, allegedly contained toxic diethylene glycol – a chemical known to cause kidney failure – far beyond permissible limits. Investigators say Dr Soni
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