A court has sentenced two pharmaceutical company executives to two-and-half years in jail for exporting substandard drugs to Vietnam a decade ago, months after the WHO linked their cough syrups to the deaths of children in Gambia.

A court in Sonipat, near New Delhi, where Maiden Pharmaceuticals has its main production facility, ordered jail for company founder Naresh Kumar Goel and technical director M K Sharma for exporting heartburn medicine “not of standard quality” to Vietnam.