Indian chemo drugs are killing people

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

Indian chemo drugs are killing people

The context: Exported ‘Made in India’ drugs have been linked to numerous deaths around the world. The most scandalous being the 2022 case when four cough syrups killed 66 children in Gambia—because they were contaminated with toxic industrial chemicals. Soon after, there were a number of similar cases that triggered WHO alerts. They revealed an ugly truth: There is little oversight or regulation of drugs exported to countries in the Global South.

What happened now: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism looked at cancer drugs shipped to more than 100 countries—and found that most of them were of poor quality. Of the 17 manufacturers implicated in this horror, 16 are Indian. As a result, the patient would either not respond to the treatment or suffer severe side-effects:

The drugs in question form the backbone of treatment plans for numerous common cancers — including breast, ovarian and leukaemia. Some drugs contained so little of their key ingredient that pharmacists said giving them to patients would be as good as doing nothing. Other drugs, containing too much active ingredient, put patients at risk of severe organ damage or even death. “Both scenarios are horrendous,” said one pharmacist. “It’s heartbreaking.”

All these drugs were generics—most of them made in India.

Indian hall of shame: The worst offender is Venus Remedies. Its breast and lymphoma cancer drug cyclophosphamide failed every single test:

All eight samples of this Venus Remedies drug failed, with six containing less than half the amount of active ingredient claimed by the manufacturer. One contained just over a quarter of the stated dose, which according to several cancer pharmacists would be as effective as no treatment at all. The drug has been shipped to six countries, with its largest importer being Ethiopia.

Of the 16 Indian manufacturers, five have been previously flagged for substandard drugs—including Zee Laboratories which was flagged 46 times since 2018.

Point to note: The findings of a separate Lancet study of four sub-Saharan nations confirm just how bad it is. Many of the drugs even failed “visual inspection.”

Data points to note: Cancer is linked to around 10 million deaths every year—and the number of cases is rising, particularly in low- and middle-income regions. In sub-Saharan Africa, the cancer rate has doubled in the last 30 years. Poorer nations heavily rely on cheap generic drugs—most of which are made in India. We exported more than $30 billion worth of pharmaceutical exports last financial year and supplied 20% of the world’s generic medicines.

Reading list: The Hindu offers the best overview of the TBIJ investigation—which you can read in full over at its website. The Lancet study on sub-Saharan countries is very nerdy—but offers hard data on the magnitude of the problem. Our Big Stories on deaths in Uzbekistan and Gambia due to contaminated cough syrup manufactured in India provide more background on the government’s eagerness to give a ‘clean chit’ to Indian pharma companies.

See no evil: The new twist in movie censorship

The backstory: While there has been a lot of attention on increasing censorship on OTT platforms—the government has been quietly tightening the noose on theatrical releases. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) must clear any movie before it hits the theaters. But filmmakers had the option of challenging a CBFC ruling in an appellate tribunal. In 2021, the government scrapped the tribunal. It also introduced a new clause to the Cinematograph Act—giving the government the power to ‘re-examine’ a film’s certification if it violated ‘national security, public order, decency’ etc. This Big Story has loads more on that move.

The other line of attack: Censorship isn’t just increasing. It is also becoming less transparent. Since 2017, CBFC has been publishing a movie’s certification and lists of cuts on a special e-Cinepramaan portal. Each movie had its own page—which you could access from the QR code on its CBFC certificate. You could then see the list of cuts enforced by the board. The URL also had a unique 18-digit number that could be used to track any new cuts made to the movie—under that ‘review’ process.

The page looked something like this:

Unsurprisingly, the more egregious cuts sparked outrage on social media—and exposed the rising tide of political censorship.

What happened now: The CBFC has now blocked public access to this e-Cinepramaan. It has also changed the URL—so QR codes on certificates issued in the past eight years cannot be used to access a movie’s e-Cinepramaan page. In essence, QR codes on certificates given to theatres still work—but those are harder to access. Besides, not every movie that is certified makes it to the multiplex.

Irony alert: The CBFC is not just taking out film content, it is also adding some of its own—like the quote from Modi-ji in Aamir Khan’s ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’. Its release was made conditional on including that bit of propaganda. Well, at least that kind of interference is easy to see—written large on the theatre screen.

Why this matters: All things “offensive” can be simply erased—quietly and without public knowledge.

Reading list: The Hindu has the best reporting on the taking down of lists of cuts from e-Cinepramaan. Our Big Story has a brief history of film censorship. For more commentary on the current issues surrounding the CBFC, check out journalist Aroon Deep’s thread.

Is baby talk a secret human superpower?

Scientists looked at five species of great apes and found out that “infant-directed speech” is unique to humans. The other four—bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans—don’t do much more than grunt or gesture at their kids. And very rarely at that:

Young apes hardly ever heard infant-directed communication from the adult apes around them. Even among chimpanzees, which chatter to one another on a regular basis, the adults might call just once to an infant over the course of an entire day. On other days, the young chimps received no communication at all, not even from their mothers.

We chat with our kids 69X more than chimpanzees—and 399X more than bonobos.

Secret sauce of language: Researchers say this baby talk may be the reason why humans have been able to pass the gift of complex language to children—“no other species can use a set of sounds to produce words, nor build sentences with those words to convey an infinite variety of meaning.” And it’s all because of baby talk. Tho thweet! (New York Times, paywalled, Phys.org)

what caught our eye

business & tech

The Trump Phone quietly dropped its “Made in the USA” claim—now it’s just “designed with American values,” whatever that means.
Microsoft and OpenAI are locked in a quiet standoff—over a clause that cuts off Microsoft’s access once OpenAI hits artificial general intelligence.
Meta is rolling out AI-powered chat summaries on WhatsApp—letting you catch up on unread messages without scrolling through the chaos.

sports & entertainment

Anna Wintour is stepping down as US Vogue editor after 37 years—but stays on as global content chief at Condé Nast.
The ICC is bringing the stop clock to Test cricket—part of a fresh batch of rule changes kicking in across formats, starting July 2.
Denis Villeneuve is set to direct the next James Bond film—the first 007 outing under Amazon MGM Studios.
Lux Pascal—Pedro Pascal’s sister and a Juilliard-trained actress—lands her first lead role as a trailblazing trans coal miner in ‘Miss Carbón’, out soon on Netflix.
Ars Technica has a good read on AIFF 2025—an AI film festival that reveals the growing rift in Hollywood over the role of generative tools in storytelling.
Aaron Sorkin is returning with ‘The Social Network Part II’—this time diving into Facebook’s dark side, inspired by the investigative reports—’The Facebook Files’.

health & environment

New research says caffeine might help your cells live longer—finally, a science-backed excuse for that third cup of coffee.
After 30 years, critically endangered red-crowned roofed turtles are back in the Ganga—20 were released in UP’s Haiderpur wetland, each tagged to track their journey.
Asia is heating up twice as fast as the global average—2024 was one of its hottest years yet, says a new WMO report.
A brutal heat wave has shattered records in over 280 US locations—putting 130 million people under extreme heat alerts.
A tigress and her four cubs were found dead in Karnataka’s Male Mahadeshwara sanctuary, likely after eating poisoned meat—prompting a government-ordered investigation.
Associated Press has a good read on how humpback whales are halting ferry traffic in Sydney—turning the city’s harbor commute into a front-row seat on Australia’s whale highway.
The Trump administration has cut millions worth of funding for Springer Nature, a German scientific publishing giant that runs 3,000 journals including Nature and Scientific American.
New York Times (splainer gift link) has an illustrated take on how bees, beer cans and big data all tackle the same tight squeeze: packing more into less space.

meanwhile, in the world

In a bid to strike a quick trade deal, the EU is weighing tariff cuts on US imports to woo Trump.
As is usual with the Trump administration though, The White House may push back its July trade deadline—as the team struggles to seal deals with key partners.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman says he and his wealthy allies are ready to spend hundreds of millions to back a candidate for New York City mayor and stop socialist frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.
A convicted UK sex offender has been charged in France over a “mock wedding” with a 9-year-old Ukrainian girl at Disneyland Paris.
Debris from a SpaceX rocket explosion has landed in Mexico—sparking outrage, possible marine die-offs, and possible legal action from President Sheinbaum.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is facing a no-confidence vote over the Pfizergate case.
For the first time, the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered an exoplanet that wasn’t previously known.

meanwhile, in India

India-US trade talks have stalled over disagreements on tariffs for auto components, steel and farm goods just days ahead of Trump’s July 9 deadline.
India has refused the UN’s offer to assist in the Air India crash investigation, despite criticism over delays in reviewing the black box data.
Kolhapuri chappal makers have accused Prada of copying their traditional sandal design and are demanding legal action and formal recognition.
Kolkata-based scientist Subhabrata Sen has become the first Indian to win the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Perkin prize.
India has refused to sign a joint statement at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meet, because it didn’t mention the Pahalgam attack but included militant activities in Balochistan.

Five things to see

One: China’s military has unveiled a spy drone that looks like a mosquito—with hair-thin legs and two wings. And it’s the same size—so it can buzz around without being detected. The drone can be controlled via a smartphone and used for commercial or covert military operations. It is kinda cool and creepy—like many things Chinese. (The Independent)

Two: Canadian rapper Genesis Yasmine Mohanraj—aka ‘Tommy Genesis’—is getting hate for her recently released track ‘True Blue’. In the music video, she’s dressed as Kali—if the great goddess wore blue body paint and a golden bikini—and is seen licking a (delicious?) crucifix. Adherents of both religions are duly outraged. Btw, Genesis is part-Tamilian and kicks off the video speaking Hindi—a gesture of linguistic unity sadly unappreciated by Indians. You can see the full music video below. (Indian Express)

Three: A California-based startup has developed a tech that allows surgeons to see right through blood—so they get “a clear view of the tissue beneath while operating.” The video is seriously cool. (Gizmodo)

Four: Bollywood rom-coms are back with this trailer for ‘Aap Jaisa Koi’—starring Madhavan as a 42-year-old Sanskrit teacher. The story is the usual progressive girl against the man’s conservative family. The movie releases on July 11. See the trailer below. (The Hindu)

Five: Oscar-winning director Ron Howard’s upcoming movie ‘Eden’ just dropped its trailer. The psychological survival thriller has a star-studded cast that includes Jude Law, Sydney Sweeney, Ana de Armas, and Vanessa Kirby—who play a group of strangers who come to an uninhabited Galápagos island… Yup, it looks like a ‘Beach’ ripoff. The movie drops on August 22. See the trailer below. (Screen Rant)