An Indonesian court has ordered two companies, Afi Farma and CV Samudera Chemical, to pay compensation to the families of more than 200 children who died or were injured after taking a toxic cough syrup. The court ruling requires the companies to compensate each affected family with up to 60 million rupiah (approximately $3,850).
The tragedy, which occurred in 2022, left about 120 children surviving the poisoning but suffering from acute kidney disease, with some enduring long-term disabilities. Concerns were initially raised when children began to fall seriously ill after taking what were believed to be routine cold medications. As deaths followed, the Indonesian government took swift action by withdrawing syrup-based medicines from sale and revoking the permits of over 1,000 products.
In response to the tragedy, 25 families filed a civil lawsuit against the country’s food and drugs agency (BPOM), the Health Ministry, and eight pharmaceutical companies. The Central Jakarta court’s ruling, released on Thursday, found Afi Farma, the drugmaker, and CV Samudera, the supplier, liable for the damages. However, the court cleared the Health Ministry and BPOM of any wrongdoing.
The compensation ordered includes 50 million rupiah for the families of children who died and 60 million rupiah for those whose children were injured. The families had initially sought much higher compensation—3.4 billion rupiah (around $219,000) for each death and 2.2 billion rupiah (about $142,000) for survivors—but the court awarded significantly less. The court’s decision document, available on its website, did not provide detailed reasons for the compensation amounts.
Previously, a criminal court had found Afi Farma, based in East Java, guilty of negligence. Officials from the company were jailed for failing to test the ingredients supplied by CV Samudera. Investigations revealed that the cough syrups contained dangerously high levels of ethylene glycol (EG), a chemical typically used in products like brake fluid and antifreeze. The concentration of EG in the syrups was found to be as high as 99 percent, far exceeding international safety standards, which allow only 0.1 percent.
This tragic incident in Indonesia is not isolated; similar cases of children dying from kidney disease after consuming contaminated cough syrups were reported in The Gambia and Uzbekistan in 2022.
