Did Pfizer Hurt Nigerian Kids?
The pharmaceutical company Pfizer is close to settling a major case in which it was accused of using Nigerian children in an unregulated clinical trial. The settlement is for about 75 million dollars; the plaintiffs were asking for 2.75 billion dollars in damages. Allegedly, Pfizer researchers set up a clinic in Northern Nigeria during an outbreak of meningitis. They administered an experimental drug, Trovan, to 200 children. Eleven children died, and after two weeks, the Pfizer team left. Trovan is banned in the EU and has been withdrawn from sale in the US. This is the story that led John Le Carre to write "The Constant Gardner."
There are a few more subtleties to the story than you might think. The death rate caused by Trovan isn't any worse than what you normally see in meningitis treatment. The other side effects seen among the 200 children are as likely to be from the meningitis as the Trovan.
But Pfizer didn't get parental permission to use an untested drug on Nigerian children. They fired an employee who wrote a letter to the company CEO saying that the drug trial had been unethical. When pressed, Pfizer argued that they'd gotten parental permission. Which they hadn't - Pfizer had a letter of consent from the ethics board of the Nigerian province where they'd tested the drug. It turned out to have been written a year after the experiment, and back-dated.
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