With splashy marketing campaigns and major donors like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, DKT International has become one of the world’s largest sellers of abortion pills, serving women from India to Mexico.
The Washington DC-based nonprofit says it provides high-quality medicines, condoms and other reproductive health products at affordable prices. But almost one-fifth of the 30 million products DKT distributes annually for abortions and postpartum hemorrhage prevention come from an Indian company with a record of making substandard medicine.
More than 30 samples of drugs made by Delhi-based Synokem Pharmaceuticals — including generic abortion pills, an antibiotic and anti-seizure medicines — have failed quality tests conducted by Indian regulators and public health researchers since 2018, according to government records and data reviewed by Bloomberg News. The samples contained impurities, lacked the right amount of active ingredient or failed to meet other international standards designed to ensure that medicine is safe and effective, the records show.