Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11986

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Publication type: news

Nigerian Court Adjourns 'Killer Drug' Case Against Pfizer
Agence France-Presse 2007 Nov 6
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071106/wl_africa_afp/nigeriahealthusdrugcourt

Full text:

KANO, Nigeria, Nov 6, 2007 (AFP) – A State High court in the Nigerian city of Kano Tuesday adjourned for the fourth time a hearing into a criminal suit filed by the Kano State authorities against US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for an alleged unauthorized drug test 11 years ago.

“We have agreed to adjourn the case to December 20 because the judge is out of town and because six of the defendants who reside in the United States have not been served,” Aliyu Umar, Kano’s justice commissioner told AFP outside the courtroom.

The Kano High Court II judge, Shehu Atiku, had on October 3 ordered the north Nigerian state’s police commisioner to go to the United States and deliver court summonses to the defendants for them to appear Tuesday.

“We have not made the arrangements necessary to enable the commissioner to travel to the US to deliver the service to the defendants,” Umar said.

“We had an afterthought. We realised that it would be better for us to go through Interpol, with the Kano police legal department as a link. We will definitely do that before the adjourned date,” he said.

Kano state government filed a 2.75 billion dollar (1.9 billion euro) civil suit and a criminal suit against Pfizer for allegedly using an untested meningitis drug, Trovan without authorisation on 200 children during a triple epidemic of meningitis, measles and cholera in which over 12,000 people died.

Kano says that the drug test led to 11 deaths and more than 180 cases of deformity including paralysis, deafness, blindness and brain damage.