Poisoned Cough Syrup Killed Kids. An Investigation Stalled

This is the first installment of Bad Medicine, a series about how porous regulation and cheap drugs are endangering lives around the world.

Ebrima Sagnia was frantic as he carried his son through the doors of a hospital one evening last September. A few days earlier, Lamin had been a rambunctious 3-year-old, chasing a ball around the yard. Now he was listless and unable to speak.

Staff at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital in the tiny West African nation of Gambia recognized the symptoms at once. They weren’t surprised to learn that Sagnia had given his son a few doses ...