Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11028

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Publication type: news

Nigeria to refile $7 bln suit against Pfizer
Reuters 2007 Jul 20
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070720/nigeria_pfizer.html?.v=1

Full text:

ABUJA (Reuters) – The Nigerian government has withdrawn its suit seeking $6.95 billion in damages from U.S. drug company Pfizer (NYSE:PFE – News) over tests conducted in 1996, but will immediately refile an amended suit, lawyers said on Friday.

On June 26, a court had rejected the government’s request to amend its suit to add a clause explaining the 11-year delay in filing it. At a court hearing on Friday, government lawyers said they would refile an amended version.

“We came to discontinue the statement of claim because our amendment was refused … We are filing a new suit, possibly by the end of the day,” said lawyer Babatunde Irukera.

The government alleges Pfizer failed to obtain regulatory approval and acted unethically when it tested the antibiotic drug Trovan on children in the northern Nigerian state of Kano during a meningitis outbreak in 1996.

Pfizer says it conducted the tests in the full knowledge of the government and in a responsible and ethical way consistent with its commitment to patient safety.

The government of Kano state is also suing Pfizer over the tests, seeking damages of $2 billion, and has also pressed criminal charges. Both the civil and the criminal cases have so far been bogged down in technicalities and have been adjourned.

Nigerian authorities allege that the Trovan tests caused the deaths of some children and permanent health problems for others.

The federal government lawyers had said at the June 26 hearing that they wanted to amend their suit to explain that the government had been waiting for the outcome of a U.S. court case on the same tests, which explained the 11-year delay.

A U.S. federal judge in 2005 dismissed the suit, saying the case should be heard in a Nigerian court.