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A Spoonful of Death

A Spoonful of Death

Update: 2025-10-16
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In India the so-called pharmacy of the world children are dying from the very medicines meant to heal them. The Morning Brief’s latest audio deep dive travels from rural Madhya Pradesh to Tamil Nadu’s factories to uncover how a cough syrup laced with industrial chemicals like diethylene glycol killed at least 25 children and how a system built on 80-year-old drug laws allowed it. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to fathers who lost their children,  Dr Arvind Bagga, professor emeritus and former head of pediatrics at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Pramod Verma, Inspector General at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh,  public health activist and author Dinesh S Thakur, lawyer and author Prashant Reddy T. Dinesh, JJ Hospital veteran Dr Ishwar Gilada  and ET's pharma editor Vikas Dandekar

This story exposes a broken drug regulation system and the human cost of neglect.

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A Spoonful of Death

A Spoonful of Death

The Economic Times