An Indian pharmaceutical society is creating highly compelling opioids without license and illegally exporting them to West Africa, where substances have caused a serious public health crisis.
An Indian pharmaceutical company is creating highly compelling opioids without a license and exporting the drug illegally in West Africa.
There, the painkillers have caused a serious public health crisis in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast, reveals an investigation from the BBC.
Based in Mumbai, India, Aveo Pharmaceuticals produces a series of capsules with different brands.
They are full of looking legitimate remedies, but everyone contains the same harmful mixture of ingredients: tapcostol – a powerful opiate – and Carisoprodolo, a muscle relaxant that causes strong dependence and is prohibited in Europe.
This combination of drugs is not approved for use anywhere in the world. It can cause convulsions and breathing difficulties. An overdose can kill.
Despite the risks, these opioids are popular drugs, sold in the streets of many African Western countries. They are cheap and easily available.
The BBC World Service has found capsule packaging with the Aveo logo on sale on the streets of large and small cities of Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast.
After tracking down the drugs at the Aveo factory in India, the BBC sent a masked professional to the factory. He presented himself as an African businessman, looking for opioids to provide Nigeria.
With a hidden camera, the BBC filmed one of the directors of Aveo, Vinod Sharma, showing the same dangerous products that we found for sale in West Africa.
In the filming recorded in secret, the masked person tells the Sharma that his plan is to sell the capsules to teenagers in Nigeria, where “everyone loves this product”.
Sharma does not retire. “Ok”, he replies, explaining that if users take two or three capsules simultaneously, they can “relax” – and agree that they could be “changed”.
More until the end of the meeting, Sharma says that “this is very dangerous for health” and adds: “Now, this is a business”.
This activity has damaged the health and destroyed the potential of millions of young people throughout the African West.
In the city of Tamale, in the north of Ghana, many young people are taking illegal opioids. This situation brought one of the backgrounds of the city, Alhassan Maham, to create a voluntary task force with about 100 local citizens.
His mission is to beat drug traffickers and remove the capsules from the streets.
“Drugs consume the healthcare health of the people who abuse them,” says Maham, “like a fire that burns when we pour the kerosene”.
A young Tamale employee has a simpler definition. For him, drugs “made us waste our life”.
The BBC team accompanied the task force. Following a complaint for drug trafficking, they took their motorcycles and beat in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Tamale.
On the road, they passed a young man who fell, in a lethargic state. He had taken those drugs, according to local residents.
When the trafficker was captured, he transported a plastic bag full of green capsules with the Tafrodol brand. The packaging was printed with the characteristic logo of Aveo Pharmaceuticals.
It is not just Tamale that the Aveo capsules have caused suffering. The BBC has found similar products by the same manufacturer, confiscated by the police in all parts of Ghana.
We also find evidence that Aveo’s capsules are on sale on the streets of Nigeria and the Ivory Coast. There, the teenagers dissolve them in alcoholic energy drinks to amplify their effect.
The public export data show that Aveo Pharmaceuticals, together with an associated company called Westfin International, has boarded millions of these capsules for Ghana and other African Western countries.
With its population of 225 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the largest market in these capsules. It is estimated that about 4 million Nigerians abuse some form of opioid, according to the country’s national statistical office.
The president of the drug and maintenance agency of the order Nigeria (Ndlea), the Brigan Gen Mohammed Buba Marwa, told the BBC that opioids “devastate our young people and our families, are found in all Nigerian communities”.
In 2018, after an investigation by Africa Eye BBC on the sale of opioids such as street drugs, the Nigerian authorities tried to control an opioid pain reliever that was the subject of large abuses called Tramadol.
The government prohibited the sale of Tramadolo without prescription, imposed serious limits on the maximum dose and repressed the import of illegal capsules. At the same time, the Indian authorities strengthened the regulations on the export of the products.
Shortly after this repression, Aveo Pharmaceuticals began to export a new drug -based drug, an even stronger opioid, mixed with the relaxant of the Carisoprodolo muscle.
The African authorities of Oeste warn that apparently opiate exporters use these new combinations as substitutes for the tramadol, running away from regulation.
At the Aveo factory, there were piles of boxes of drug combinations, which almost reached the ceiling.
On his table, Vinod Sharma presented several capsules packaging containing the mixture of Tapcostel and Carisopdol, marketed by the company with several brands, such as Tafrodol (the most popular), Timaking and Super Royal-225.
He told the masked team of the BBC that the factory “scientists” could combine several drugs to “produce a new product”.
Aveo’s new product is even more dangerous than Tramadol. Professor Lekhansh Shukla, of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences of Bengaluru, in India, underlines that the tapcosta “causes the effects of opiates”, including a very deep sleep.
“It can be so profound that people don’t breathe, which leads to the overdose of the drug,” he explains.
“And also, eat another agent, Carisoprodolo, which also causes very deep relaxation and sleep. It seems a very dangerous combination.”
Carisoprodolo was prohibited in Europe to cause addiction. It is approved for use in the United States, but only for short periods of up to three weeks.
Symptoms of abstinence include anxiety, insomnia and hallucinations.
If mixed with the tapcostel, abstinence is “even more serious” than ordinary opioids, according to Shukla. “It’s a somewhat painful experience.”
He says he does not know the clinical exams on the effectiveness of this combination.
Unlike Tramadol, whose consumption is legal in limited doses, the Tapcostel cocktail and Carisopdol: does not seem a rational combination “, according to the professor. “It is not something that is approved for use in our country.”
In India, pharmaceutical companies cannot legally produce and export drugs not approved unless they satisfy the standards of the importing country.
But Aveo exports Tafrodol and products similar to Ghana, where the combination of Tapcostel and Carisoprodolo is illegal and not approved, according to the National Drug Drug Agency. That is, exporting Tafrodolo to Ghana, Aveo is breaking the legislation of India.
We present these questions to Vinod Sharma and Aveo Pharmaceuticals, but they did not respond until the publication of this relationship.
The Drugs regulation body of India, Cdco, said that the Indian government recognizes its responsibility for global public health and undertakes to guarantee that India has a regulatory system of strong and responsible pharmaceutical products.
The agency added that the exports of India in other countries are carefully monitored and that the recently strengthened standards are rigorously performed.
The body has also convened the important countries in support of Indian efforts, ensuring the maintenance of strong similar regulatory systems.
The CDSCO claims to have raised the problem with other countries, including those of West Africa, and has committed to work with them to avoid irregularities.
The regulatory agency stressed that it will undertake immediate actions against any pharmaceutical company involved in illegal acts.
Aveo is not the only Indian company that produces and exports prohibited opioids.
Export data available to the public indicate that other pharmaceutical companies produce products and similar drugs with different brands are widely available throughout West Africa.
These producers are damaging the reputation of the Indian pharmaceutical industry, which is rapidly growing.
India produces high quality generic remedies, consumed by millions of people all over the world, as well as vaccines that have already spared millions of lives.
Indian exports of the total sector every year at least 28 billion dollars (about R $ 159.6 billion).
The identity of the person who met disguised by Sharma will remain under confidentiality for his safety.
“Nigerian journalists have denounced this opiate crisis for over 20 years,” he said. “But in the end, I was face to face with one of the men who are in the origins of the opiate crisis of Africa, who really produces this product and exports it to our countries in container. He knew the evil he was doing, but did not do it It seems caring … and has simply described it as a company.
Returning to Tamale, Ghana, the BBC team accompanied the local task force in a last success that has discovered even more capsules of Aveo. That night they gathered in a local park to burn confiscated drugs.
“We are burning in an open place for everyone to see,” said Zickay, one of the leaders, while the team unloaded gasoline on the packaging and set fire. “So we send a signal to sellers and suppliers: if we take them, we burn your drugs.”
But while the flames destroy a few hundred tafrodol pages, the best sellers and suppliers, thousands of kilometers from India, produce millions of capsules and enrich people’s suffering.
Watch YouTube at the documentary The kings of the opioids of India (in English), from the BBC News Africa, which gave rise to this relationship.
Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
