Indian authorities have banned two highly addictive opioids in response to a BBC investigation which found they were fuelling a public health crisis in parts of West Africa.
In a letter seen by the BBC from India's Drugs Controller General, Dr Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi said permission to manufacture and export the drugs had been withdrawn BBC Eye found that one pharmaceutical company, Aveo, had been illegally exporting a harmful mix of tapentadol and carisoprodol to countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote D'Ivoire.
India's Food and Drug Administration said the company's factory in Mumbai had since been raided and its entire stock seized.
The circular from Dr Raghuvanshi, dated Friday, cited the BBC investigation in his decision to ban all combinations of tapentadol and carisoprodol, which was to be implemented with immediate effect.
