Indonesia's food and drugs agency on Monday said it may take criminal action against two pharmaceutical companies that made products linked to acute kidney injury AKI as a result of a spike in cases and deaths among children this year.
Authorities have temporarily halted sales of some syrup-based medications and identified the presence of ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol as possible factors in the deaths of 141 children, most of which were under 5.
BPOM chief Penny K. Lukito said the agency would work with police to investigate the two firms, with a view to criminal charges over the composition of their products. Penny did not identify the two companies.
Penny told a news conference that there are indications in their products of concentrations that are highly toxic, highly excessive, and suspected to cause kidney injury.
There were cases that spiked from August to October.
Asked why the spike was only recent, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said it was most likely due to changes in the raw ingredients of medications.
He said the government had data on recent imports of raw ingredients and would share it at a later time.
According to the health ministry, Indonesia imports most of its raw ingredients for medicines from India and China.
In Indonesia, there is an increase in AKI cases in consultation with paediatric experts and the World Health Organization WHO, following a similar pattern in Gambia, which has seen 70 child AKI deaths related to syrup medications.
Three medications with high levels of ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol were recently named by BPOM and ordered to be taken out of circulation.