NIGERIA: Nigerian rights groups urge Pfizer to pay compensation for drug-trial patients

A coalition of Nigerian human rights groups have urged giant US drug manufacturer Pfizer to pay compensation to the people affected by drug trials it conducted in northern Nigeria more than a decade ago. Nigerian rights groups have called for U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to pay compensation to patients affected by drugs trials the company conducted in the northern part of the country in the mid-1990s. A court case brought by Nigeria against Pfizer resumes on Wednesday (October 3) with the drug maker saying it answered a call for help to save the lives of African children during a meningitis epidemic at the time. The outbreak killed more than 12,000 children in six months near the northern city of Kano. Meningitis is an infection of the nervous system that can kill in hours if left untreated. Nigeria alleges Pfizer was responsible for the deaths of 11 children and permanent health problems for many others. It says it failed to obtain all the required approvals for the test and did not get proper consent from the patients. The test involved 200 children, half of whom received a new drug Trovan while the other half received a proven meningitis treatment. The Kano State government and Nigerian Federal government are jointly suing the company for 8.5 billion US dollars. Pfizer rejects all the charges. It says Trovan saved lives and the alleged victims were affected by meningitis, not the drug. "All what we are saying is that the drug used by Pfizer has caused injuries and harm to innocent helpless children in Kano and Pfizer should have a human face, show remorse and make compensation to the families of the these victims," said Sanni Sami, the leader of the human rights coalition which have organised protests against the company. Pfizer's representatives say Trovan had already been tested on 5,000 people before it was used in Nigeria. It was licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use on adults a few months after the Kano trial, and briefly became one of Pfizer's top-selling drugs. However, the authorities imposed severe restrictions on its use three years later when it was found to cause serious liver injuries in some adult patients. "There is no reason why a pharmaceutical company that has conducted an illegal trial of its drug and have used our own children as guinea pigs, there is no reason why they should not be compensated. And this protest is a first step of so many things we will do," Sami said. "In the next step we will await for the court judgement. And if compensation is not paid to the victims of this Trovan drug trials, we will certainly call for the boycott of Pfizer as Nigeria and the whole of Africa is concerned. Africa must not be a dumping ground for all sorts of experimental laboratories of the western world," he continued. Pfizer faces an even more hostile reception in Kano, a focus of Islamic radicalism in Nigeria with a history of religious bloodshed and rejection of Western medicine. The state government banned vaccines against polio for nine months in 2003, alleging they contained HIV and were spreading infertility. The Kano boycott fuelled a resurgence of the crippling virus across Africa. On July 30, the Kano state high court deferred the civil suit to October 3 after the government's lawyer asked for time to study a defence statement filed by Pfizer. The company was challenging the court's jurisdiction to hear the lawsuit on the grounds that Pfizer is not a Nigerian company. The case was first brought in the United States, but thrown out in 2005 by a judge who said it should be heard in Nigeria. Nigerian civil rights groups say they are planning more demonstrations against Pfizer.

ITN Source | October 3, 2007

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