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Health

Nigerian Pfizer trial to be heard in US

4 February 2009

NIGERIAN families who are claiming that the drugs giant Pfizer used their children in an illegal clinical trial will get their case heard in a US court.

On 30 January, an appeals court in New York overturned a previous ruling that two lawsuits brought by the families would have to be heard in Nigeria.

The lawsuits relate to a trial of the antibiotic Trovan conducted on some 200 children during a 1996 epidemic of bacterial meningitis in Kano, northern Nigeria. Eleven of the treated children died, while some of the others developed brain damage or arthritis.

“The trial involved 200 children. Eleven died, others developed…

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