Photo credit: BBC
A new documentary from the BBC World Service has revealed that an Indian pharmaceutical company is manufacturing unlicensed, addictive opioids and exporting them illegally to West Africa where they are driving a major health crisis.
In the documentary titled, “India’s Opioid Kings,” Aveo Pharmaceuticals, based in Mumbai, are makers of a range of pills that go under different brand names and are packaged to look like legitimate medicines. However, all of them contain the same harmful mix of ingredients: tapentadol, a powerful opioid, and, carisoprodol, a muscle relaxant so addictive it’s banned in Europe.
This combination of drugs has been banned globally and can cause breathing difficulties and seizures. An overdose can kill. Despite the risks, these opioids are widely used as street drugs in many West African countries like Ghana, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire.
After tracing the drugs to Aveo’s factory, the BBC sent an undercover operative to the factory. He posed as an African businessman looking for a supply of opioids to Nigeria. Using a hidden camera, the BBC filmed one of Aveo’s directors, Vinod Sharma, showing off the same dangerous products the BBC found for sale in West Africa.
The operative, camera hidden, tells Sharma that he plans to sell the pills to teenagers in Nigeria. Sharma unflinchingly replies “OK,” before explaining that if users take two or three pills at once, they can “relax” and get “high.” Sharma then holds up a box of pills made in his factory and admits, “This is very harmful for their health – but nowadays, this is business.”
