node exec awk command quotations

Question

Using this pattern to pass a parameter in exec command:

const the_xml_file = 'pubmed22n1171.xml';
const the_command = "echo " + the_xml_file;

async function myBash() {
    try {

        const { stdout, stderr } = await exec( the_command );

        console.log(stdout);

    } catch (err){
       console.error(err);
        //console.log('stderr:', stderr);
    };
  };

However when the command is

const the_command = "awk 'BEGIN{splitno=15000; sn=splitno+1; out=FILENAME\"_\"int(c++/sn)+1\".xml\"} /<PubmedArticle/{f=1} f{print > out} /<\/PubmedArticle>/&&c%sn==0{close(out); f=0}' " + the_xml_file;

I get an error:

Error: Command failed: awk 'BEGIN{splitno=15000; sn=splitno+1; out=FILENAME"_"int(c++/sn)+1".xml"} /<PubmedArticle/{f=1} f{print > out} /</PubmedArticle>/&&c%sn==0{close(out); f=0}' pubmed22n1171.xml
awk: non-terminated regular expression &&c%sn==0{... at source line 1
 context is
        BEGIN{splitno=15000; sn=splitno+1; out=FILENAME"_"int(c++/sn)+1".xml"} /<PubmedArticle/{f=1} f{print > out} /</PubmedArticle>/&&c%sn==0{close(out); >>>  f=0} <<< 

Ive tested the awk command and it works from the console so I'm assuming this is a quotation mark issue. Any suggestions would be appreciated.