Pfizer are back in the dock again, this time for testing an experimental drug on children during a deadly meningitis outbreak. The drug giant faces a fine of $9bn (£.4.5bn) if it is found guilty of the charge.
The case centres on the unlicensed drug trovafloxacin which was supposedly given to a group of children in 1996 in Kano, Nigeria. Five of the children subsequently died.
The illegal use of the drug came to light in 2006 when the story appeared in the Washington Post.
A Nigerian court has issued arrest warrants for three Pfizer executives in Nigeria after they failed to appear in court to face charges from the Nigerian government that they used critically ill children as ‘guinea pigs’ in an illegal drug trial.
Pfizer denies all charges.
(Source: British Medical Journal, 2008; 336: 11).
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