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위키리크스의 화이자관련 내용 <가디언> 보도.
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전세계 1위 제약회사인 화이자(Pfizer)가 나이지리아에서 진행된 불법 임상실험에 대한 손해배상소송을 막기 위해 나이지리아 법무장관의 부패를 이용 협박하려 했다는 화이자측과 미국대사관의 2009년 4월 회의 내용 등.
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화이자는 1996년 유럽에서 성인용으로만 허가된 Trovan 이라는 항생제로 100명의 나이지리아 어린이들 대상의 뇌막염을 치료 임상실험을 시행. 부모의 동의도 받지않은 임상시험으로 확인된 숫자만 5명의 어린이들 사망.
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Trovan은 결국 간독성으로 시장에서 철수
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이런 더러운 술책으로 60억달러 규모의 소송이 결국 나이지리아와 화이자의 비밀합의로 7500만 달러 배상으로 2009년 종료되었다는 내용.
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당시 나이지리아 언론은 소송이 취하되고 배상으로 합의되자 “법무장관과 화이자의 비밀거래”라고 헤드라인으로 보도함.
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이 과정에서 화이자측은 국경없는 의사회가 그 실험에 참여했다고 비난했으나 국경없는 의사회측은 화이자가 그런 약을 사용하여 임상실험을 하는 것으로고 경악하여 이를 알렸다고 반박했다는 내용도 포함.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/09/wikileaks-cables-pfizer-nigeria
WikiLeaks cables: Pfizer used dirty tricks to avoid clinical trial payout
Cables say drug giant
hired investigators to find evidence of corruption on Nigerian attorney
general to persuade him to drop legal action
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guardian.co.uk,
- Article history
epidemic of unprecedented scale in 1996. Photograph: Pius Utomi
Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images
The world’s biggest pharmaceutical company hired investigators to
unearth evidence of corruption against the Nigerian attorney general in
order to persuade him to drop legal action over a controversial drug
trial involving children with meningitis, according to a leaked US embassy cable.
Pfizer
was sued by the Nigerian state and federal authorities, who claimed
that children were harmed by a new antibiotic, Trovan, during the trial,
which took place in the middle of a meningitis epidemic of
unprecedented scale in Kano in the north of Nigeria in 1996.
Last year, the company came to a tentative settlement with the Kano state government which was to cost it $75m.
But
the cable suggests that the US drug giant did not want to pay out to
settle the two cases – one civil and one criminal – brought by the
Nigerian federal government.
The cable reports a meeting
between Pfizer’s country manager, Enrico Liggeri, and US officials at
the Abuja embassy on 9 April 2009. It states: “According to Liggeri,
Pfizer had hired investigators to uncover corruption links to federal
attorney general Michael Aondoakaa to expose him and put pressure on him
to drop the federal cases. He said Pfizer’s investigators were passing
this information to local media.”
The cable, classified confidential by economic counsellor Robert Tansey, continues:
“A series of damaging articles detailing Aondoakaa’s ‘alleged’
corruption ties were published in February and March. Liggeri contended
that Pfizer had much more damaging information on Aondoakaa and that
Aondoakaa’s cronies were pressuring him to drop the suit for fear of
further negative articles.”
The release of the Pfizer cable came as:
•
The American ambassador to London denounced the leak of classified US
embassy cables from around the world. In tomorrow’sGuardian Louis Susman
writes: “This is not whistleblowing. There is nothing laudable about
endangering innocent people. There is nothing brave about sabotaging the
peaceful relations between nations on which our common security
depends.”
• It emerged that Julian Assange had been transferred to the segregation unit in Wandsworth prison and had distanced WikiLeaks from cyber attacks on MasterCard, Visa, PayPal and other organisations.
•
Other newly released cables revealed that China is losing patience with
the failure of the Burmese regime to reform, and disclosed US fears
that Europe will cave in to Serbian pressure to partition Kosovo.
While
many thousands fell ill during the Kano epidemic, Pfizer’s doctors
treated 200 children, half with Trovan and half with the best meningitis
drug used in the US at the time, ceftriaxone. Five children died on
Trovan and six on ceftriaxone, which for the company was a good result.
But later it was claimed Pfizer did not have proper consent from parents
to use an experimental drug on their children and there were questions
over the documentation of the trial. Trovan was licensed for adults in
Europe, but later withdrawn because of fears of liver toxicity.
The
cable claims that Liggeri said Pfizer, which maintains the trial was
well-conducted and any deaths were the direct result of the meningitis
itself, was not happy about settling the Kano state cases, “but had come
to the conclusion that the $75m figure was reasonable because the suits
had been ongoing for many years costing Pfizer more than $15m a year in
legal and investigative fees”.
In an earlier meeting on 2 April
between two Pfizer lawyers, Joe Petrosinelli and Atiba Adams, Liggeri,
the US ambassador and the economic section, it had been suggested that
Pfizer owed the favourable outcome of the federal cases to former
Nigerian head of state Yakubu Gowon.
He had interceded on Pfizer’s
behalf with the Kano state governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau – who
directed that the state’s settlement demand should be reduced from $150m
to $75m – and with the Nigerian president. “Adams reported that Gowon
met with President Yar’Adua and convinced him to drop the two federal
high court cases against Pfizer,” the cable says.
But five days later Liggeri, without the lawyers present, enlarged on the covert operation against Aondoakaa.
The cable says Liggeri went on to suggest that the lawsuits against Pfizer “were wholly political in nature”.
He
alleged that Médecins sans Frontières, which was in the same hospital
in Kano, “administered Trovan to other children during the 1996
meningitis epidemic and the Nigerian government has taken no action”.
MSF
– which was the first to raise concerns about the trial – vehemently
denies this. Jean-Hervé Bradol, former president of MSF France, said:
“We have never worked with this family of antibiotic. We don’t use it
for meningitis. That is the reason why we were shocked to see this trial
in the hospital.”
There is no suggestion that the attorney
general was swayed by the pressure. However, the dropping of the federal
cases provoked suspicion in Nigeria. Last month, the Nigerian newspaper
Next ran a story headlined, “Aondoakaa’s secret deal with Pfizer”.
The
terms of the agreement that led to the withdrawal of the $6bn federal
suit in October 2009 against Pfizer “remain unknown because of the
nature of [the] deal brokered by … Mike Aondoakaa”, it said. Pfizer and
the Nigerian authorities had signed a confidentiality agreement. “The
withdrawal of the case, as well as the terms of settlement, is a highly
guarded secret by the parties involved in the negotiation,” the article
said.
Aondoakaa expressed astonishment at the claims in the US
cable when approached by the Guardian. “I’m very surprised to see I
became a subject, which is very shocking to me,” he said. “I was not
aware of Pfizer looking into my past. For them to have done that is a
very serious thing. I became a target of a multinational: you are
supposed to have sympathy with me … If it is true, maybe I will take
legal action.”
In a statement to the Guardian, Pfizer said: “The
Trovan cases brought by both the federal government of Nigeria and Kano
state were resolved in 2009 by mutual agreement. Pfizer negotiated the
settlement with the federal government of Nigeria in good faith and its
conduct in reaching that agreement was proper. Although Pfizer has not
seen any documents from the US embassy in Nigeria regarding the federal
government cases, the statements purportedly contained in such documents
are completely false.
“As previously disclosed in Pfizer’s 10-Q
filing in November 2009, per the agreement with the federal government,
Nigeria dismissed its civil and criminal actions against the company.
Pfizer denied any wrongdoing or liability in connection with the 1996
study. The company agreed to pay the legal fees and expenses incurred by
the federal government associated with the Trovan litigation. Pursuant
to the settlement, payment was made to the federal government’s counsel
of record in the case, and there was no payment made to the federal
government of Nigeria itself. As is common practice, the agreement was
covered by a standard confidentiality clause agreed to by both parties.”
