I saw this article about Nigerian children given an untested drug, Trovan by an American drug company on Common Dreams (and the Independent in the U.K.) and thought to myself how is this not being covered by our media. I will summarize, but you should go read the article.
The lawsuit further contends: "Pfizer agreed to do an illegal act...in a manner so rash and negligent as to endanger human life." The lawsuit continues that Pfizer destroyed all evidence of the drug trials and the medical records and left the area. In addition to not informing the children's parents of the clinical trial Pfizer is also accused of not providing information as to safe alternative treatments, the drug chloramphenicol, "a relatively cheap antibiotic recommended for bacterial meningitis."
Pfizer will be answering to criminal charges in Nigeria (the first of their kind against a multinational drug company) over a clinical trial in Kano, Nigeria over a bacterial meningitis outbreak ten years ago. The scenario goes like this: a meningitis outbreak in Nigeria occurs, Pfizer enters an outbreak camp and selects 200 children and infants for test trials of the drug Trovan, an untested antibiotic. Trovan has never been approved for U.S. children and in 1997 was restricted for adults because of reports of liver damage and death. The Nigerian lawsuit further alleges that Pfizer did not receive consent from the children's families though it was known to have life threatening side effects and according to their own research was "unfit for human use."
The lawsuit further contends: "Pfizer agreed to do an illegal act...in a manner so rash and negligent as to endanger human life." The lawsuit continues that Pfizer destroyed all evidence of the drug trials and the medical records and left the area. In addition to not informing the children's parents of the clinical trial Pfizer is also accused of not providing information as to safe alternative treatments, the drug chloramphenicol, "a relatively cheap antibiotic recommended for bacterial meningitis."
The Nigerian government report found 11 children died and an unknown amount suffered, blindness, deafness, paralysis and other disabilities. Pfizer is charged with eight counts of criminal conspiracy and voluntarily causing grievous harm. Nigeria also filed a civil suit seeking more than 2.7 billion dollars.
Pfizer contends after a US government audit of the records on Trovan they produced a letter from a hospital in Kano, Nigeria that approved the study by the hospital's ethics committee. Nigeria claims, however the letter was forged; the hospital has no ethics committee.
Public anger in Kano is extremely high as well as assurances by any pharmaceutical company. The people of Kano will not trust the Nigerian government to immunize their children against polio. Can we blame them? Could American Pharmaceutical companies be so brazen and have such a disrespect for poor African lives to do such a thing? I will be following up on this story.
1 comment:
man, the US press is so weak sometimes. This was one the first page of the International section of Folha de S. Paulo, the best and most-read paper in Brazil. I thought it was really cool that John Le Carre wrote the Constant Gardener about this case, by changing some names.
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