India sentences two pharma executives after cough syrup might have killed dozens of kids in Gambia

An Indian court docket has sentenced two pharmaceutical firm executives to two-and-half years in jail for exporting substandard medication to Vietnam a decade in the past, months after the WHO linked their cough syrups to the deaths of kids in Gambia.

India suspended manufacturing at Maiden Pharmaceuticals in October final yr for violations of producing requirements after the World Health Organization stated 4 of its cough syrups might have killed dozens of kids in Gambia.

The firm has denied its medication have been at fault for the deaths in Gambia and exams by an Indian authorities laboratory discovered there have been no toxins in them.

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The firm had been dealing with authorized difficulties for years over suspected shoddy merchandise.

A court docket in Sonipat, close to New Delhi, the place Maiden has its primary manufacturing facility, ordered jail for firm founder Naresh Kumar Goel and technical director M.Ok. Sharma for exporting heartburn drugs “not of ordinary high quality” to Vietnam.

Logo of the Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd. firm is seen on a board in New Delhi, India, on Oct. 6, 2022.  (REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis)

“This court docket has come to the conclusion that the complainant/prosecution has duly proved the cost … past a shadow of affordable doubt,” the choose, Sanjeev Arya, informed the court docket in its ruling final week.

The written judgement was posted on-line this week. The court docket has given them till March 23 to enchantment to a better court docket.

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The two have been additionally fined $1,209 every for exporting the drugs, Ranitidine Tablets B.P (Mantek-150), to Vietnam.

Goel didn’t reply calls to his phone. The firm stated it had no speedy touch upon the convictions and declined to supply Sharma’s contact particulars.

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Their lawyer informed the court docket that as each Goel and Sharma have been over the age of 60 and had been dealing with court docket proceedings for the seven years, it ought to take a “lenient view” on their punishment, in line with the judgement.

Indian authorities began investigating the corporate in 2014 after the Consulate General of India in Vietnam informed India’s Drug Controller General that Vietnam had blacklisted many Indian corporations, together with Maiden, for high quality violations.