AKIPRESS.COM - As many as three employees of a Noida-based pharmaceutical firm, Marion Biotech, whose cough syrup is alleged to have led to the death of 18 children in Uzbekistan last year, were arrested. The officials were arrested on charges of manufacturing and sale of adulterated drugs, officials told news agency PTI.

In December last year, Uzbekistan claimed that at least 18 children in the country had died after allegedly taking an India-manufactured cough syrup. According to Uzbekistan's health ministry, laboratory tests of a batch of syrups found "the presence of ethylene glycol", a toxic substance. The ministry said ethylene glycol were administered in doses higher than the standard for children, either by their parents, who mistook it for an anti-cold remedy, or on the advice of pharmacists.

The officials then inspected the manufacturing facility of the cough syrup and collected the Dok-1 Max cough syrup samples from the plant. The samples were sent for contamination testing to the Regional Drugs Testing Laboratory (RDTL) in Chandigarh.

The arrests were made after an FIR was lodged on Thursday against five officials of Marion Biotech, including two of its directors, over a complaint by a drugs inspector of the CDSCO, officials told PTI.

Police said the directors of the company are at large and a search is underway to apprehend them.