The parents of four Nigerian children who died of meningitis have become the first winners of a 15-year legal battle against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer over a fiercely controversial drug trial.
The world’s biggest research-based pharmaceutical company announced it had made payments of $175,000 to each family yesterday. More such compensation settlements are expected to follow.
Pfizer was sued after 11 children died in a clinical trial when the state of Kano was hit by Africa’s worst meningitis epidemic in 1996.
A hundred children were given an experimental oral antibiotic called Trovan, while a further one hundred received ceftriaxone, the “gold-standard” treatment of modern medicine.
Five children died on Trovan and six on ceftriaxone. Later however it was claimed Pfizer did not have proper consent from parents to use an experimental drug on their children. – (Guardianservice)