Maiden Pharma founder, cleared in Gambia cough syrup deaths, jailed by Indian court for quality violations in Vietnam

Months after Indian firm Maiden Pharma's cough syrups were linked to deaths of more than 60 children in Gambia, the country's Drug Controller General cleared the firm. The outgoing DCGI VG Somani, also criticised the World Health Organisation for issuing warnings against Maiden's syrups to prevent more deaths. Now an Indian court has sentenced two of Maiden's executives to two and a half years in prison, over exporting substandard cough syrups to Vietnam 10 years ago.

The court in Sonipat, where Maiden manufactures its products, sent its founder Naresh Kumar Goyal and technical director MK Sharma, to jail. This comes months after an Indian lab found no toxins in Maiden's cough syrup and the country's drug regulator gave it a clean chit. The company argued that since both Goel and Sharma are above 60, the court should've been lenient in their case.

After a clean chit to Maiden in India, Gambia's parliamentary committee had found that cough syrups from India were indeed contaminated. The verdict by the DCGI Somani, who was set to be replaced shortly, also followed another incident of Indian firm Marion Biotech's cough syrup causing deaths in Kazakhstan. Other pharma majors such as Aurobindo and Sun Pharma also had to recall their products in US markets, denting Indian pharma's image further.

Maiden had already been facing a probe since 2014, over the case in Vietnam, where it was blacklisted for violating quality standards.