Over
the last two decades Pfizer, the US drugs giant has been in somewhat of a long
court battle which was as a result of Pfizer testing a new type of drug on 200
unsuspecting Nigerian children. Whose parents could barely speak English and
were not aware that they were participating in a drugs test and were oblivious
to the fact that they were actually qualified to receive more conventional
medication at the same centre at absolutely no cost. 11 of the 200 children
died with many more suffering blindness, deafness and cognitive damage.
Rewind
to 1996, I was a secondary school student barely 100 kilometres away from Kano
state were this atrocious and inhumane act took place. We had all heard about
the outbreak of meningitis and were advised accordingly. It was everywhere and Kano state in northern
Nigeria took a fairly good hit.
No
sooner had the WHO (World Health Organization) raised the alarm than Pfizer
turned up, like a whole host of other pharmaceutical and medical groups.
Apart
from offering their much needed help, Pfizer did have a much more sinister and
ulterior motive for turning up. They had a new drug Trovafloxacin (a quinolone
antibiotic) a drug which was untested on human infants and known to have very
serious side effects on humans.
Trovafloxacin
they administered to 100 of the 200 children. With the other 100 children,
Pfizer deliberately reduced the dosage with the standard anti-meningitis drug
Ceftriaxone.
Of
the 12000 children who died during that terrible outbreak these 200 children
were the most tragic. They along with their families thought they had a chance
having arrived safely at the centre to receive medication, not knowing that
awaiting them was certain death in the form of the drugs Giant, Pfizer.
Where
else can you carry out an illegal drugs test better than a country ravaged with
corruption and on unsuspecting children who were desperately in need of a
saviour? Children who had witnessed
their friends, brothers and sisters die of the ravaging ailment that was
meningitis. In Pfizer they saw a light at the end of the tunnel, they saw
tomorrow. Not knowing that even as the Pfizer official coldly picked them at
random off the queue they were being sentenced to a life of utter misery and
for 11 of them, certain death.
The
Survivors of the Pfizer drug test attempted to bring a number of legal actions
against Pfizer in the United States. These attempts kept bumping into one legal
obstacle or another. After repeated attempts to sue in an American court in
January 2006 The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the Nigerian victims and their
Families are entitled to bring suit against Pfizer in the United States under
the Alien Tort Statute.
After
months of fruitless wrangling and feet dragging by Pfizer A member of the
United States Congress, Tom Lantos of California called on Pfizer to open its
records.
Seeing
some headway with the progress in the States, on the 5th of June 2007 the
Nigerian Government filed a law suit against Pfizer claiming it never applied
for, nor received approval to carry out the said test.
In
February 2009 Pfizer on the one hand decided to settle the 200 families and on
the other hand hired investigators to uncover damaging stories about the
Nigerian Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa, in other to force him to drop the
Federal Cases against them. It was a ploy which seemed to work. The federal
cases did disappear.
In
March 2009 former Nigerian Military Leader General Yakubu Gowon and Former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter brokered talks in Rome, Italy which resulted in Pfizer agreeing to a
$75million settlement.
 |
| General Yakubu Gowon |
 |
| President Jimmy Carter |
As is wont to happen in any corrupt administration, in October 2009 it was announced that the medical records of the Pfizer victims could not be found. This was announced just after Pfizer had paid out $10million of the $75million. No doubt that $10million went into somebody's' election campaign kitty.
 |
| A 1996 Trovafloxacin Victim |
Not
totally sure if the surviving victims and their families got any pay-out, I
went ahead to contact Pfizer Uk. I stated that I had been unable to contact
Pfizer US from England. I promptly received a reply stating that Pfizer had
apparently met their obligations and funds had been disbursed to a trust Fund
(no name) in Kano state. I sent another Email requesting more information with
regards to the trust fund. After almost a week I am yet to receive a reply from
the Pfizer press offices.
Somewhere
in Kano State Nigeria there are 200 families who have been forever scarred by
this reckless and criminal behaviour by Pfizer and ultimately possible betrayal
by their own government. I still continue my quest to locate every single one
of those 200 families and establish without any doubt that they were
compensated.
Below
is a series of emails exchanged with Pfizer press office.
 | Obi Awunor <obiawunor@googlemail.com> |
| RE: request for information 7 messages |
Good job Obi! Don't give up!
ReplyDeleteGood job! Don't give up!
ReplyDelete