New York, NY –
A group of Nigerians can proceed with a lawsuit in Manhattan that accuses Pfizer of performing experimental drug tests without consent. WNYC’s Fred Mogul reports.
REPORTER: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals said the allegations, if proved, could represent, quote, "a real threat to international peace and security."
A group of Nigerian families allege Pfizer and the Nigerian government did not get informed consent from patients and guardians to use an experimental antibiotic during a 1996 meningitis epidemic. In 2001, they sued Pfizer, claiming the tests led to the deaths of 11 children and blindness, deafness and brain-damage. That drug, Trovan, was later limited in the US to adult emergency use, and it was banned entirely in Europe.
A federal district court initially dismissed the lawsuit, saying it didn’t meet the criteria of a law called the Alien Tort Statute. Now, a federal appeals court has returned it to the lower court to re-consider whether the cases should be heard in the U.S. or Nigeria.
For WNYC, I’m Fred Mogul
Fred Mogul has been covering healthcare and medicine for WNYC since 2002. His beat takes him to hospitals, community clinics, doctors offices, health agencies, public schools and research labs across the metropolitan area. His work has appeared on NPR and in the New York Times, Time magazine and Philadelphia Inquirer, among others.
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