Nigeria sues Pfizer over 'killer drugs'

ABUJA (NIGERIA): Nigeria filed a lawsuit for $ seven billion damages from Pfizer over a drug test in which about 200 children were either killed or deformed, court officials said.

The federal government suit, filed yesterday, says the children suffered various degrees of adverse effects ranging from deafness to muteness, paralysis, brain damage, loss of sight, slurred speech, while 11 died.

The federal action follows a similar suit filed last month by Kano, Nigeria's largest state, which is seeking USD 2.75 billion from the pharmaceutical giant.

Both lawsuits centre around the events of April 1996, when the World Health Organization (WHO) and Pfizer volunteered to help in Kano following an outbreak of measles, cholera and meningitis that killed more than 3,000 people.

The Kano state suit alleges that Pfizer administered an untested drug called Trovan Floxacin without authorization on almost 200 children infected with meningitis in the state.

The federal lawsuit echoes those charges.

"In the midst of the epidemic, Pfizer devised a scheme under which it misrepresented and failed to disclose its primary motive in seeking to participate in giving care to the victims of the epidemic," it alleges.

"Pfizer never disclosed that it intended to experiment on vulnerable victims or conduct any clinical trials without the necessary approvals from regulatory agencies in Nigeria but pretended it came to render humanitarian service."

The case was adjourned till June 26, 2007, for hearing.

In a statement released in response to the Kano state lawsuit last week, Pfizer denied the charges against it.