Pfizer pays compensation to Nigerian trial victims
pharmafile | August 12, 2011 | News story | | Kano, Pfizer, Trovan, misconduct, out of court
Pfizer has paid out the first compensation to families of children who died during a meningitis drug trial in Nigeria.
Pfizer was sued after a 1996 meningitis trial in the northern city of Kano in which 11 children died during the testing of its new antibiotic Trovan.
A group of 200 children were given the drug during a meningitis epidemic, as part of a trial comparing Trovan with established antibiotic treatment ceftriaxone. Five children died on Trovan and six on ceftriaxone.
Pfizer was accused of not gaining consent from the children’s families, and violating international law and disregarding ethical practices in relation to the trial.
The legal action also alleged that the children on the trial received a lower than recommended dose of ceftriaxone. In addition to the deaths, many more were left brain damaged, with paralysis or slurred speech as a result of the meningitis.
Pfizer maintained that the children were already very sick and either died or were injured as a result of their meningitis.
In 1999, Trovan was withdrawn from markets globally after it was found to have been associated with serious hepatic events, including nine cases where patients died or required a liver transplant.
The company and the complainants agreed in 2009 to an out-of-court settlement, estimated to be worth $75 million in total.
The firm has now paid $175,000 (£108,000) to four families in what is expected to be the first of a series of payments.
Pfizer said in February it had settled all outstanding lawsuits, and has also agreed to fund health projects in Kano worth $35 million.
Pfizer says there were only 200 participants in the Trovan clinical trial, but that there have been over 500 claims for compensation to the independent board established to adjudicate on who is eligible for compensation. Pfizer stressed that the board – and not Pfizer or the Kano State government – will determine the eligibility of claimants and, if applicable, the payment they will receive.
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