“The families of the children who [Pfizer] used as laboratory guinea pigs were led to believe and in fact understood that the Defendants were providing their children with volunteer relief, clearly focused humanitarian medical intervention and nothing more,” the lawsuit says. Parents were not told that alternative treatments were available, it adds.UPDATE: Please see comments.
Psychiatric medications, science, marketing, psychiatry in general, and occasionally clinical psychology. Questioning the role of key opinion leaders and the use of "science" to promote commercial ends rather than the needs of people with mental health concerns.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Reality Impresonates Art
For those of you who have seen The Constant Gardener, you are now allowed to wonder if the movie was really fictional. Criminal charges have been filed against Pfizer for allegedly setting up a clinical trial in which they misled African child participants badly and used a very weak comparison drug, which may have led to the demise of some participants. Here's one piece from the lawsuit, courtesy of Pharmalot...
Thanks for the movie info. Somehow I missed it in 2005.
ReplyDeletePfizer Faces New Charges Over Nigerian Drug Test
ReplyDeleteBy Joe Stephens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 2, 2007; D01
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, already fighting state criminal charges in northern Nigeria, also faces a string of criminal counts and $7 billion in civil claims brought by federal Nigerian authorities in the capital of Abuja, newly obtained documents show.
Nigerian prosecutors confirmed this week that the federal attorney general's office has charged Pfizer and some of its medical researchers with forgery, possessing an illegal drug and unauthorized practice of medicine.
All the charges stem from a 1996 Pfizer drug trial in which some children died and others suffered debilitating injuries after being treated during a meningitis epidemic
MORE
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/01/AR2007060102197.html
BBC reporting now also http://news.bbc.co.uk/
ReplyDelete2/hi/africa/6719141.stm
Nigeria sues drugs giant Pfizer
Nigeria has filed charges against the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, accusing it of carrying out improper trials for an anti-meningitis drug.
The government is seeking $7bn (£3.5bn) in damages for the families of children who allegedly died or suffered side-effects after being given Trovan.
Kano state government has filed separate charges against Pfizer.
The firm denies any wrongdoing, saying the trials were conducted according to Nigerian and international law.