In 1996 during a bacterial meningitis outbreak in Nigeria, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, illegally used a test drug on the local population. "Those reportedly treated by the company ended up with adverse effects like deafness, muteness, paralysis, brain damage, loss of sight, slurred speech and death." I find it interesting that pharmaceutical companies choose to test in Africa...why is that? Perhaps the developed world is too good for testing and thus opt to use Africans as their Guinea pigs. Today Pfizer settled out of court with the government of Nigeria in an attempt to further hide the truth of their inhumane testing practices.
Read more here
All Africa
Washington Post
3 comments:
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Off to investigate Pfizer's work in Uganda. Thanks for the tip.
Your story is largely a fib. I am a Nigerian living in Nigeria and familiar with the Trovan saga. It is very strange that you have already pronounced judgement on a case in court. I thought that was what courts were meant for. From the records available in the Nigerian courts, it is clear that Pfizer had the permission of the Nigerian government to conduct the trials. All the relevant agencies including the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) consented in writing. Are you aware that Pfizer had a better survival rate (about 94.5 percent) than Doctors Without Borders who worked side by side with Pfizer and using the gold standard drug during the meningitis epidemic in Nigeria? Nobody has accused Doctors Without Borders of killing Nigerian children because obviously they don't have big money to part with. Those of us who have been following the cases in court are amazed at the quantum of lies being unfairly deployed over the media. By all means we must stand up for our own, but what kind of morality informs deliberate lies and half-truths skillfully deployed to mislead? I'm glad that all the parties involved on both sides of the litigation are reaching settlement out of court. I get suspicious when some people are unconfortable with this cheering development.
In response to the above comment.
Thanks for your reply, it reads like the Pfizer Trovan Fact Sheet.
1. The drug Trovan was approved by the FDA for US marketing in 1997, and became available to the general market in 1998 (only for use on adult illnesses.) Both these dates are well past the 1996 testing date. Prior to 1996 Trovan had been tested on 5000 adults in the US,however the drug had never been orally administered to children. Furthermore, Animal testing indicated that Trovan might cause significant side effects in children such as joint disease, abnormal cartilage growth (osteochondiosis, a disease resulting in bone deformation) and liver damage. "In January 1999, the FDA recommended that Trovan be prescribed only for patients in nursing homes or hospitals suffering from life threatening conditions. (Compl. P 223.) That following June, the FDA issued a public health advisory on liver toxicity associated with oral and intravenous Trovan following post-marketing reports of acute liver failure strongly associated with the drug."
The fact remains that Pfizer implemented the use of a drug for which they did not have sufficient/applicable test data.
2. Pfizer argued that they could not obtain informed consent from the guardians and parents because they were illiterate. I did not realize being illiterate removes your capability to give informed consent. Were these guardians or parents informed that they had the option to select a more conventional WHO approved drug? Were they informed that Trovan had never been orally administered to children?
3.Doctors without Borders was working in Nigeria throughout the epidemic, they did not just come for a couple of weeks to test a drug and then leave (as Pfizer did). MSF showed commitment to and respect for the people of Nigeria by providing an approved drug. Pfizer never even returned for follow up tests or to monitor their patients.
Fact: Trovan was a test drug.
It should never have been used in the context that it was.
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