7. “ Of the 200 children who participated in the trial, five of those given Trovan died and many others were left with disabilities.”
8. “ Some of the parents have claimed that they did not know they were submitting their children to a trial of an experimental drug and were not told Trovan had never been tested on children.”
9. A Statement by PFIZER “ the Nigerian trovafloxacin trial was an important clinical investigation, and Pfizer is proud of the way the trial was conducted.” -Stating in a Dec. 17 press release
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11. People in the district are refusing new immunizations for CSM, cholera, and measles. “The bature (white men) will kill us again if we allow them to give us...tablets and injections,” -The News a weekly magazine from Lagos reported on Jan. 29
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Editor's Notes
GOOD Morning ALL The vikings today going to exhibit the nigerian Pfizer Scandal.
Pfizer Incorporated is a pharmaceutical company , ranking number one in sales in the world. Pfizer is named after German-American cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhardt. The company is based in New York City , with its research headquarters in Groton , Connecticut . It is a public Inc with stocks registered over NYSE as PEF. Its headquarters are in Midtown Manhattan , New York City . Mr. Jeff Kindler is the CEO. On January 26, 2009, Pfizer agreed to buy pharmaceutical giant Wyeth for US$ 68 billion, a deal financed with cash, shares and loans.The deal was completed on October 15, 2009.
The trial conducted by Pfizer was called as THE NIGERIAN TROVAFLOXACIN TRIAL.
Allegations against Pfizer first surfaced in December 2000 At issue was the company’s possible breach of global ethical guidelines on pharmaceutical trials.
Pfizer, which hoped that Trovan would become a multibillion-dollar brand, had been waiting for an opportunity to test the drug on children suffering from cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM). 1.What is cerebrospinal meningitis? Csm is a bacterial viral infection that causes inflamation of that tissues that cover the brain and spinal cord. This disease can lead to brain damage, coma and further can prove to be fatal.
Since meningitis epidemics occur very infrequently in the United States, the 1996 Nigerian epidemic presented a rare opportunity for a trial.
It is alleged that Trovan maimed or killed some children recruited into the trial, and that Pfizer left before the epidemic was over.
A non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) provided free emergency treatment at the government Infectious Diseases Hospital in Nigeria. Pfizer team joined the government and the MSF at the government hospital in Kano. The Pfizer team recruited children to test a drug called Trovan, or Trovafloxacin. The government hospital and the MSF did the treatment of children. These authorities did not knew that trovan was still on the trial mode and without any written consent from the parents they tested the drug over the innocent children.
According to Pfizer, parents of the children agreed verbally with nurses that the experimental drug could be used on their children. The company also claims that the Nigerian government knew about the trial. (Source: Washington Post). The company denies behaving unethically. Pfizer also states that the experimental drug saved lives. The company wasn’t ready to accept their deadly mistake rather accused the adminstration for the approval of human experimentation of drugs.
In addition to blaming Pfizer, many commentators lamented what they saw as a corrupt Nigerian administration that had rubber-stamped the trial without due diligence. “ The propensity for corrupt practices on the part of a few Nigerians has apparently permitted our people to be used as a laboratory for the unregulated testing of a new drug with obviously bad consequences thereof,” Pfizer has been accused of conducting trial without Approval from relevant regulatory authorities Ethical approval Informed consent Pfizer responded that it was invited to help fight the epidemic; could not obtain informed consent because of illiteracy; they were given permission by the authorities.
The residents of Kano have been left with a legacy of fear. Further the people of Kano, Nigeria were refusing to take further medication for various diseases spread in the district as they thought the act of trovan was to kill the black poor by the white men(bature) from the other country by the means of medicines and injections.
The event in Nigeria was the inspiration behind the movie and the book THE CONSTANT GARDENER by LE CARRE’. a giant multinational company took advantage of, and deceived poor children and their families to do something they would never have been allowed to do in their home country, this was an appaling tragedy. And this was OUR tribute to sufferers.
