On Monday, a court in Uzbekistan sentenced 23 people to prison terms over the deaths of 68 children linked to contaminated cough syrups produced by India’s Marion Biotech, Reuters has reported.

Uzbekistan had previously reported 65 deaths linked to the medicines, but last month the prosecutors at the Tashkent city court updated the death toll and said two more people had been charged during the hearings.

Singh Raghvendra Pratar, an executive director at Quramax Medical, a firm distributing medicines manufactured by Marion Biotech in Uzbekistan, received the longest prison sentence, lasting for a period of 20 years.

As per the report, the defendants were found guilty of tax evasion, sale of substandard or counterfeit medicines, abuse of office, negligence, forgery, and bribery.

Furthermore, the court also said that compensation amounting to 80,000 US dollars (1 billion Uzbek sums) should be paid to each of the families of 68 children who died from consumption of the contaminated syrup. Additionally, four other children who suffered disabilities will also receive the designated compensation. The compensation will be collected from seven of the convicts, the court said.

The cough syrup Dok-1, manufactured by Marion Biotech, was associated with the deaths of children in Uzbekistan in December 2022. The incident forced central and state drug authorities in India to launch a probe into the matter. Subsequently, the manufacturing licence of the Noida-based firm was cancelled by the Uttar Pradesh authorities in March 2023.