Nigerian court winds up tainted baby syrup firm

A Nigerian court has shutdown the company behind the tainted teething syrup that was linked to the deaths of 84 children.

The federal high court in Lagos made the decision to wind up the firm, Barewa Pharmaceutical, last week, and handed out 14 year jail terms to the production and quality assurance managers. In 2008, My Pikin baby mixture contaminated with diethylene glycol was linked to 84 deaths.

Court cases against the two men given 14 year jail terms began in 2009, but it took four years to reach sentencing. Director General of Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Paul Orhii, took up his position around the time the court case began, and pursued what is being described as a landmark conviction.

"It is the first time we have ever secured that kind of conviction," Orhii told Nigerian newspaper The Guardian. Orhii and others in the Nigerian pharmaceutical industry expressed a hope that the strong court action would deter others from selling substandard and dangerous products.