Here is one book that goes into some detail:Bottle of Lies: Ranbaxy and the Dark Side of Indian Pharma
Many children lost their lives in Gambia and Uzbekistan after consuming tainted cough syrup made in India. The worst part is not the error, it is the fact that indian regulators and the indian government don't do anything to solve the problem.
Weirdly, it doesn't seem like a regulatory requirement to print the country of manufacture on the box. All of our food is clearly labelled but not pharmaceuticals? An odd omission.
I speak as someone who worked in India -- Bangalore, in the IT sector -- for 2 years. I loved the place and the people. But for sure the work ethic is ... different to Australia.
Instead, greed and crony capitalism takes over and increasingly, the indian government is getting increasingly involved, reacting to any criticism in a churlish manner.
Really sad to see the wasted potential in a country like India. I suspect this is cultural and not easy to fix.
That might not be palatable but it's true.
My mate Kiran used to lament the state of his own country. "The corruption..." he would sigh.
It's the opposite in the US, for the most part.
During a visit to a facility of leading Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd last year, U.S. inspectors found that a black fiber embedded in a tablet may have been a hair from an employee’s arm, according to documents seen by Reuters. ....
The Mohali plant, in the northern state of Punjab, had not been making U.S. exports since last November, when it voluntarily recalled its generic version of cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor in the United States due to the potential presence of glass particles in certain batches.
Here's another case from last year:
A parliamentary committee in Gambia said on Tuesday that India-based drug maker Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd was responsible for the deaths of at least 70 children from acute kidney injury and called on the government to pursue legal action.
According to a WHO report, "labs contracted by it in Ghana and Switzerland found excess levels of ethyleneglycol and diethyleneglycol contaminants in the Maiden syrups."
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/gambia-lawmakers-say-ma...
Note that the plant cited in the 2013 case was majority owned by a Japanese pharmaceutical company. They still couldn't get QC right.
That said, India does produce massive amounts of pharma for export around the world. Just read the labels on the boxes in the drug stores.