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Nigeria: Pfizer to Pay N11.2bn Compensation How Gowon, Carter Negotiated Out-of-Court Settlement Nuruddeen M. Abdallah 1 March 2009 Daily Trust Abuja — United States pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, may have finally agreed to release the sum of $75 million (about N11.250 billion) as compensation over the 1996 Trovan drug test in Kano State, Sunday Trust can authoritatively report. The experiment left over 200 persons, mainly children, with deformities. Some have died. A source close to the company told Sunday Trust last night in a telephone interview that of the amount, $35 million is going to be shared among the victims as compensation; $30 million will be paid to Kano State Government for the construction of modern hospitals; and the remaining $10 million will be paid to cover litigation expenses by government on behalf of the victims. This development, it was gathered, was the drug company's response to a proposal submitted to it in a meeting held last month in Abuja by the stakeholders' delegation that included the Kano State Attorney- General and Commissioner for Justice, Aliyu Umar, a representative of the victims' parents, Mustapha Maisikeli, Barrister Maryam Uwais, and the state Commissioner for Health, Hajiya Aisha Isiyaku Kiru, the former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) and former American President Jimmy Carter. The two former presidents have been brokering an outof-court resolution of the issue. It was gathered also that General Gowon has intimated Governor Ibrahim Shekarau about the giant company's acceptance of the proposal. The deal will be sealed in Rome in March this year. "The money would be finally released to us in March in Rome when we are going to meet with General Gowon and Pfizer's representatives to finalise the deal," a parent of a victim told this newspaper. According to him, it is only when the agreement is written and the money received that the stakeholders would withdraw both the civil and criminal suits pending against Pfizer. When Sunday Trust contacted the drug company over the issue, its spokesman Christopher Loder, said in a statement issued in New York that "the company does not believe it is appropriate to comment on the substance of its discussions with the governments at this time". "The Company has made and continued to make serious efforts to reach an appropriate and amicable resolution of the Nigerian federal and Kano state cases pertaining to Trovan. The settlement process is ongoing, and Pfizer is prepared to stay at the negotiating table until agreement are reached. We believe that settlement is in the best interest of all parties, and will avoid the continued cost and distraction of litigation, and can help improve and expand health care for the people of Nigeria," the statement said. This settlement follows months of negotiations between Pfizer and the Kano state government, representing the victims. The talks were brokered by General Gowon and US former president Jimmy Carter. It could be recalled that Kano State had filed civil and criminal suits against Pfizer, demanding $2.75 billion in compensation for what it said was an illegal test of the meningitis vaccine Trovan on 200 children in 1996. Eleven of those children are alleged to have died from the drug test which also caused deformities in 189 others. A separate $6.5 billion suit has been lodged against the US drug firm by the Nigerian federal government. Pfizer has denied any wrong-doing and insisted that the trial conformed to ethical practices and was carried out with the consent of the Nigerian government, insisting that "the company has said all along that all clinical evidence points to the fact that any deaths or injuries were the direct result of the devastating meningitis epidemic, and not the treatment provided to patients in the Trovan clinical study. With a survival rate of 94.4%, Trovan helped save lives and was at least as effective as the best treatment available at Kano's Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH). For patients who did not participate in the Trovan clinical study, the survival rate was slightly less than 90%," Pfizer insisted in a statement. A source closed to the victims told our reporter in confidence that it was not true the rumour going round that it was the government that pressurized them to accept the drug giant's proposal. The decision, he said, was borne out of sympathy with the victims and their parents, as some of them had already died of frustration. -30- Traditional African Clinic April 2009 http://allafrica.com/stories/200903010014.html ☻☻☻☻☻☻
WHO Predicts Worst Meningitis Epidemic for Decade UN Integrated Regional Information Networks 9 October 2007 Ouagadougou The end of the rainy season in Africa could trigger the worst meningitis epidemic to hit the continent in a decade, which the international community is poorly prepared to handle, the World Health Organization warned on 9 October. At least 80 million people living in 21 countries from Ethiopia in East Africa to Mauritania in West Africa that make up a region often called Africa's 'meningitis belt' might need to be injected with preventative vaccines this year, WHO said at an emergency meeting held in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou. Last year just 7 million doses of vaccines were available to the entire region because of funding shortfalls and a global deficit in the production of the cheaper vaccines usually used in Africa as European drug manufacturers have focused on producing newer, long-lasting but more expensive vaccines. The meningitis virus, which usually reaches epidemic levels in the meningitis belt between December and May, could be especially severe this year as the region is heading toward the peak of a 10- to 12-year cycle of meningitis crises, health forecasters say. "The number of cases has increased in the last two seasons and we are likely to have major epidemics in a context of vaccine shortages," Dr Deo Nshimirimana, Director of the Communicable Disease Control Department at WHO Africa office told IRIN. "We need to educate everybody so that we can be prepared in case of an epidemic." An estimated total population of between 300 million and 400 million people live in the meningitis belt countries, the vast majority of them in isolated, rural areas, often far from roads or health centres. Between 1995 and 1997, the last time there was a major epidemic in the region, at least 25,000 people died and 250,000 people were infected. From December to May last year 53,000 cases of meningitis were reported and an estimated 4,000 people died across the region. The countries affected are mostly extremely poor and have desperately under-resourced health systems. In many of the countries, governments rely on foreign donors to prop up basic health infrastructure even when there is not a crisis. WHO has asked donors to provide US$14 million to purchase 12 million doses of vaccine and injection materials, and to cover transport, storage and insurance costs. WHO also wants to strengthen surveillance and diagnosis capacities in the region, which includes several of the poorest countries in the world. "The partners have been receptive to our appeal and to the stakes," Nshimirimana said. "They have agreed to lobby at their headquarters." The 12 million doses - a minimum, according to WHO - will be pre-positioned for response in case of epidemics. Additionally, WHO wants to set up a security stock of 500,000 vaccine doses in each of the countries of the meningitis belt. "I think this meeting is very important because the budgets of African countries mean left alone they cannot support the fight against meningitis," Burkina Faso's health minister Alain Yoda said at the opening of the WHO meeting. Burkina Faso, where nearly 26,000 cases of meningitis were recorded last year and 1,732 people died, needs six million doses, Yoda said. Semi-arid Sahelian countries are hit each year by outbreaks of meningitis during the dry seasons between December and June when strong, dust-laden winds and cold nights make people more prone to respiratory infections. The meningitis bacteria is transmitted by sneezing or coughing. Meningitis is an infection of the thin lining around the brain and spinal cord. Even when meningitis is diagnosed early and adequate therapy is available, between 5 and 10 percent of patients die, typically within 24 and 48 hours of experiencing the first symptoms. Many thousands of survivors live on with brain damage, hearing loss, or learning disabilities. UN agencies and non-governmental organisations at the Ouagadougou meeting included the UN children's fund, the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office, USAID, Medecins Sans Frontiers, the World Bank and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] http://allafrica.com/stories/200710091014.html ☻☻☻☻☻☻ -31- Traditional African Clinic April 2009
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