Pfizer Accused of Tests that Killed Nigerian Children

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

FAMILIES: PFIZER HURT, KILLED KIDS
UNETHICAL EXPERIMENT IN NIGERIA LEFT 11 DEAD

by the associated press

NEW YORK, Aug 29 (AP) -- Pfizer Inc. was accused in a
lawsuit Wednesday of causing brain damage and
sometimes death to Nigerian children when it
conducted ``secret testing'' of a new meningitis drug in
1996.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan,
seeks unspecified damages on behalf of 30 children who
participated in the drug trial in Kano, in northern
Nigeria.

The children were among 200 youngsters who were
part of the testing of Trovan, an unproven drug
administered in a form never before tested on humans,
the lawsuit says.

The families of seven of 11 children who died after
participating in the test were among plaintiffs listed in
the lawsuit.

A telephone message left with Pfizer was not
immediately returned.

According to the lawsuit, the tests were conducted
during an epidemic of bacterial meningitis in Nigeria
that left children desperate for medical care.

``Rather than provide the children with a safe,
effective and proven therapy for bacterial meningitis,
Pfizer chose to select children to participate in a
medical experiment of a new, untested and unproven
drug without first obtaining their informed consent,''
the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit asserts that the drug was known to have
life-threatening effects that soon surfaced during the
tests in an impoverished city experiencing epidemics of
bacterial meningitis, measles and cholera.

The lawsuit says Pfizer hurried plans to carry out its
tests, taking a variety of steps that violated
international law, federal regulations and medical
ethics.

 
=================================================================
  NY Transfer News Collective   *   A Service of Blythe Systems 
           Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us          
              339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012             
  http://www.blythe.org                  e-mail: nyt@blythe.org 
=================================================================
 
nytrc-08.30.01-00:45:53-30629