One of the nation’s leading drug manufacturers, Pfizer, already facing criminal charges in Nigeria eleven years after an experiment on children suffering from meningitis, now faces new criminal charges and $7 billion in civil claims brought by federal authorities in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. Pfizer is being charged with forgery, possessing an illegal drug, and unauthorized practice of medicine. The criminal charges carry sentences of up to seven years per charge.
These charges, along with the charges announced in late May, stem from a 1996 drug trial in which Nigerian children suffering from meningitis were given the drug Trovan, which had not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in the United States. Many of the children died after taking the meningitis drug, and several others suffered a range of disabling injuries.
Pfizer officials claim that Trovan saved the lives of nearly 200 Nigerian children suffering from meningococcal meningitis. Trovan was approved in the United States one year after the experiment in Nigeria; however, it has since then been discontinued due to FDA warning about possible liver damage from the drug.
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