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Nigeria: Meningitis - FG Sues Pfizer $700bn Ise-Oluwa Ige 5 June 2007 Abuja — The Federal Government has sued the world largest pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, before a Federal high court sitting in Abuja for allegedly maiming or and killing in 1996, not fewer than 200 children afflicted in Kano state by bacterial meningitis through alleged illegal experimentation of its products, Trovafloxacin Mesylate, (Trovan) on them. The government is asking the court to award $700billion damages against the pharmaceutical firm. If the damages is awarded, it is capable of closing down the operation of the pharmaceutical firm. In the writ of summons filed at the registry of the high court, nine other persons including the medical personnel that allegedly administered the Trovan on the victims for the purpose of testing the potency of the drug, were named as co-defendants. They include Pfizer Nigeria Limited, William Steere, Samuel Ohanbuwa, A Dogunro, Isa Dutse, Scott Hopkin, Mike Dunne, Debra Williams and Robert Buhl. But the management of the Pfizer International Incorporated has served a notice through its counsel, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) that it would challenge the competence of the entire case and collapse the claim by the Federal Government. Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) who appeared personally in the case yesterday also requested for an accelerated hearing of the case. He particularly said in court yesterday that the damages being sought by the Federal Government was more than its annual budget and that it should not have any problem with the accelerated hearing of the case so that it could claim the sought damages. The trial high court judge, Justice Babs Kuewumi hearing the case has granted the request for accelerated hearing of the suit and has ordered the government to furnish the firm. all relevant papers in the matter. The matter is scheduled for mention on June 26, this year while full blown trial kicks off in July. The background of the case as captured by the statement of claim filed by the Federal Government was that on or about the month of April 1996, there was an epidemic of bacterial meningitis, measles and cholera in parts of Northern Nigeria particularly Kano State and some of the victims and/or patients were receiving medical attention at the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) through the joint efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Kano State Government of Nigeria. Government to combat and contain the epidemic were complemented by the humanitarian assistance and supplies donated by Non-governmental Organizations including Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian relief organization also known as "Doctors Without Borders". The epidemic was extremely ravaging and as such there was a limitation of space and resources which limitation led to MSF setting up its tent on the grounds of the IDH from where it attended to the patients and/or victims. The Federal Government contends that in the midst of the epidemic, Pfizer, acting by itself and through its agents, devised a scheme under which it misrepresented, concealed and failed to disclose its primary motive in seeking to participate in giving care to the victims of the epidemic in Kano. http://allafrica.com/stories /200706050032.html ☻☻☻☻☻☻ Early Symptoms of Meningitis • high fever • neck stiffness • rash • lethargy • vomiting • nausea • severe headache • sensitivity to light • Meningitis usually peaks in late winter and early spring, overlapping flu season, and symptoms can easily be mistaken for the flu. • Because the infection progresses quickly, people should seek medical care immediately if 2 or more of these symptoms occur at one time. • If untreated, meningitis can lead to shock and death within hours of the first symptoms. https://www.hvcc.edu/healthsvcs/meningitis.html ☻☻☻☻☻☻ -26- Traditional African Clinic April 2009
Pfizer Blocks Prosecution By Mohammed Lawal Shuaibu. Abuja Daily Trust (Abuja) 28 November 2007 Pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, yesterday blocked the Federal Government from prosecuting it on criminal charges by obtaining an injunction restraining police from arraigning its officials. The Federal Government is instituting criminal charges against Pfizer before an Abuja Federal High Court for allegedly making Nigerian children "guinea pigs" for testing its meningitis drug in Kano in 1996. The government said the injunction is preventing it from prosecuting the multi-national company. Counsel representing the government said "the police could not bring Pfizer officials to court because the company got an injunction at a Lagos court restraining the police from bringing its officials to court for prosecution". "What Pfizer has done is what a former governor did to stop EFCC from prosecuting them. They went to Lagos State where there is no action pending to procure an exparte order to stop the police from taking steps to serve criminal summons on its officials. What the court has said is that police cannot arrest any of the defendants and bring them to court. And that is why none of them is in court," Mr Babatunde Irukera, one of the government counsel said. The government lead counsel, Mrs Mariam Uwais, asked the court for a date to enable the complainants time to convince the Lagos court to withdraw the exparte order restraining police from arresting the defendants so that they could bring Pfizer to court for prosecution. The presiding judge, Justice Anwuri Chikere, adjourned the case to January 28. Meanwhile the court has also adjourned the victims' application to be joined in the case to December 3 for parties to file their written addresses on arguments for and against the application. Pfizer is contesting that the move for application for victims to be joined in the case was illegal because the victims' families lacked representative capacity to be involved and that their application does not disclose sufficient interest in the subject matter to enable the court exercise jurisdiction. But the government said it would welcome anything that would hasten the process of justice for the drug victims. http://allafrica.com/stories/200711280492.html ☻☻☻☻☻☻ Re - Pfizer's Cold Blooded Logic Leadership (Abuja) OPINION 31 October 2007 By Ngozi Edozien Unfortunately, the numerous errors contained in your newspaper's report of 24 October, 2007 entitled Pfizer's Cold Blooded Logic make it necessary to set the record straight. First, the results of the 1996 clinical trial in Kano during the most serious cerebral spinal meningitis epidemic ever recorded in Nigeria plainly proved that Trovan helped save lives. Second, it is important to note that 99 children were treated with Trovaflosacin not 200 as you reported erroneously in your article. Third. the clinical investigation did not turn tragic. Instead it demonstrably saved more lives than any other treatment available in Kano at the time. The average mortality rate of those receiving treatment in Kano's hospital using other drugs was slightly more than one patient in every 10. Whereas, with Trovan, the mortality rate was around half that rate; of 99 patients who took Trovan, only five died from the meningitis they had contracted. Moreover, your anger at the tragedy of the meningitis epidemic that claimed 12, 000 or so young lives in the Kano region is misplaced. It was not any of the treatments that killed people in 1996; it was the disease. Left untreated the disease claims somewhere between 30 to 40 per cent of its victims. Based on existing treatments, the intervention of science and professional care can reduce the mortality rate to around 10 per cent of those who contract meningitis. To date, no treatment has been developed that can save all who fall victim of this deadly disease. Yet, that objective of obtaining the highest possible survival rate in such epidemics is what Pfizer is in business to discover. and why it conducted a clinical trial in Kano in 1996 in the first place. You seem to have misunderstood what Pfizer is all about. The purpose of Pfizer, the focus of its business, Continued on page 28 -27- Traditional African Clinic April 2009
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Page 19 and 20: Burkina Faso: Five Million at Risk
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Page 37 and 38: Nigeria: Country Gets $630 Million
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Page 49 and 50: Uganda: Ministry Exceeds Polio Vacc
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