Under the guise of humanitarian action, did the Pfizer group conduct clinical trials without authorization during a meningitis epidemic that raged in 1996 in northern Nigeria? Families accuse the lab of being responsible for the death of certain children and serious consequences for others. “Complementary investigation” found a witness from the time.
In 1996, Dr. Evariste Lodi was 30 years old when Doctors Without Borders sent him to northern Nigeria. The meningitis epidemic which then struck tens of thousands of children caused real chaos. Humanitarians work in very precarious conditions. Overnight, researchers from the Pfizer group join them. “They were everywhere in the tents”, recalls Evariste Lodi, claiming to have witnessed lumbar punctures not respecting the required technical conditions.
The researchers came, with the approval of the public authorities according to them, to test a new antibiotic. For these clinical trials, Trovan will be administered to around 100 children.
“Pfizer flew to Kano for one purpose: to test Trovan. The purpose of this clinical trial was to develop a drug, which Pfizer intended to market to make money. Pfizer saw an opportunity in this epidemic, and took advantage of it.”
Babatunde Irukera, former Nigerian state attorneyto “Further investigation”
Give “to a patient in such a situation a drug which has not proved its effectiveness, without knowing whether it is more effective or less effective than the one which is being used” … Dr. Lodi judges the process “unacceptable”. According to the doctor, “it was not the right time” to conduct this kind of experimentation, and “we had to limit ourselves to the protocol” which was in progress.
Following these trials, Nigerian families accused Trovan of being responsible for severe neurological damage, and even the death of some children. They also claim that the drug would have been administered to their child in their authorization. For its part, the firm ensures that it has obtained an oral agreement from the families…
“They were so driven by a single objective that they did not stop for a moment to tell themselves that they had human beings in front of them, in a sovereign country.”
Babatunde Irukerato “Further investigation”
“Further investigation” obtained the investigation report from the Nigerian authorities: the investigations would not have found any document proving any approval from the families. According to the report, the laboratory would not have requested authorization from the national authorities of Nigeria either.
“There is no record of informed consent.” “There was no proper follow-up.” “The company did not follow the procedures necessary to conduct a clinical trial.”
Conclusions taken from an investigation report by the Nigerian authoritiescited in “Additional investigation”
“I have never seen any authorization, any letter, any trial protocol”, declares in “Complementary investigation” the lawyer of the African State. The Pfizer group claims to have obtained the necessary authorizations from the Nigerian and American authorities, but “the only thing we know, according to the lawyer, is that there was a falsified document”. The only written trace of a green light for these experiments comes from a local ethics committee, and would have been signed in reality… six months after the tests. A dated document.
In 2009, to avoid a lawsuit, Pfizer had to pay the State of Kano and the families $75 million compensation.
Excerpt from “Pfizer: who’s afraid of the big bad lab?”, a document to see in “Complementary investigation” on May 4, 2023.
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