Pfizer And Nigeria Hold Trovan Settlement Talks
4 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // June 20th, 2008 // 8:22 am
Both sides are “keen” to reach a deal over charges that Pfizer’s 1996 clinical trial for its antibiotic caused the death of 11 children and left dozens disabled, Reuters writes. Nigeria’s federal government and its northern state of Kano sued Pfizer last year for a total $8.5 billion in damages over Trovan tests during a 1996 meningitis epidemic that killed 12,000 children.
The civil and criminal cases launched by Nigeria’s authorities have grown into a tangle of unresolved petitions and counter-claims, dragging from one adjournment to the next, and have included threats to bring current and former Pfizer execs, including former ceo Bill Steere, to Nigeria to testify. Pfizer, by the way, has denied the charges.
“There is a great desire, there is disposition towards settlement,” one Pfizer lawyer, Damian Dodo, tells Reuters. “The process is still on. It is going on on parallel lines. There is active engagement by all the parties.”
One court, meanwhile, ruled that families of victims could be heard as defendants alongside the government. Pfizer had appealed to have a government report into the clinical trial quashed. Justice Onwuri Chikere said the families had “sufficient interest” to warrant being heard and said the case would continue on September 22, according to Reuters.
Nigerian authorities blame Trovan for 11 deaths and the permanent health problems of dozens of others. Nigeria also says Pfizer did not obtain proper regulatory approval for the trial on 200 children and misled parents. Pfizer argues that it was meningitis that killed the children or damaged their health, while Trovan saved lives and was as effective as the other, established drug used for comparison in the trial.
Talks between the state of Kano and Pfizer on a possible settlement stalled last December following disagreements over liabilities and compensation, but have since resumed, Reuters writes. Court sources tells Reuters that Pfizer proposed at a meeting in Abuja in March to pay $10 million in compensation, rehabilitate the hospital where the Trovan study took place and upgrade Kano’s state-owned drug manufacturing company.
Margaret
I have watched John LeCarre’s “The Constant Gardner” and read his book of the the same name countless times. It is a metaphor for so much that is wrong with Phrma.
Lea
I too have watched “the constant gardner” over and over, and after looking into this Pharm company, and others also, I realize that these companies are only out for one thing…..PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT!! When is it right for them to come into (Africa, etc…) trial these drugs on poor unsuspecting children, and just think they can walk away! (this certain company didnt even trial Trovan on rats before giving it to the children!) How many other companies do the same and get away with it…? I wonder…… why did they feel they needed to go to Nigeria to trial Trovan, WHY NOT DO IT IN AMERICA/ENGLAND ETC…. Also, why has Pfizer changed the name of Trovan, to another name, but still the same ingredients? What else are they covering up?? THANKYOU.
atlex
Lea,
There are so many inaccuracies in your statement, I almost don’t know where to begin.
1) The Constant Gardener is FICTION.
2) Trovan was a Phase 3 drug had been through animal and human testing.
3) The trial was in Nigeria because there was a major epidemic of meningitis that was killing thousands of children.
3) The name of the drug was never changed.
Atlex
atlex
Lea,
There are so many inaccuracies in your statement, I almost don’t know where to begin.
1) The Constant Gardener is FICTION.
2) Trovan was a Phase 3 drug had been through animal and human testing.
3) The trial was in Nigeria because there was a major epidemic of meningitis that was killing thousands of children.
4) The name of the drug was never changed.
Atlex