Pfizer: Nigeria drug trial victims get compensation

출처 : BBC 11 August 2011 Last updated at 17:01 GMT
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14493277

US-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has made the first compensation payment to Nigerian families affected by a controversial drug trial 15 years ago.

It paid $175,000 (£108,000) each to four families in the first of a series of payments it is expected to make.

The payouts are part of an out-of-court settlement reached in 2009.

In 1996, 11 children died and dozens were left disabled after Pfizer gave them the experimental anti-meningitis drug, Trovan.

The payouts were made to the parents of four of the children who died.

Their parents told the BBC they welcomed the payment, but it would not replace the loss of their loved ones.

The children were part of a group of 200 given the drug during a meningitis epidemic in the northern city of Kano as part of a medical trial comparing Trovan’s effectiveness with the established treatment.

For years Pfizer maintained that meningitis – not the drug – caused the deaths and disabilities.

But after a lengthy and expensive litigation process, it reached a settlement with the Kano government in northern Nigeria.

DNA tests

The trials were carried out in Kano and the state government fought Pfizer on behalf of victims and their families.

Hajara, photographed in 2007, survived the trials but became deaf afterwards and is unable to speak

It has taken two years and DNA tests to establish who is entitled to payments, the BBC’s Jonah Fisher in Lagos says.

It could take another year for payments to be concluded, he says.

Pfizer also agreed to sponsor health projects in Kano as well as creating a fund of $35m to compensate those affected.

Pfizer said it was pleased the four had been compensated.

“This is the first step in a multi-phase review process by which the independent board of trustees that manages the fund will deliver payment to all other qualified claimants,” the company said in a statement.

“We thank them for their commitment and dedication to seeing this process through in the most timely and transparent way possible.”

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From other news sites

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  Telegraph Pfizer starts paying out over deadly Nigerian drug trial 1 hr ago



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  NEWS.com.au Pfizer pays Nigeria drug-test victims 6 hrs ago



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  UPI Pfizer begins payments in drug trial case 11 hrs ago



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  Guardian.co.uk Pfizer pays out to Nigerian families of meningitis drug trial victims 12 hrs ago



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  Yahoo! UK and Ireland Pfizer begins long-delayed payouts over Nigerian drug trial 14 hrs ago



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Pfizer begins long-delayed payouts over Nigerian drug trial

출처 : AFP
http://news.yahoo.com/pfizer-begins-long-delayed-payouts-over-nigerian-drug-160337642.html

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on Thursday began long-awaited compensation payments to families over a 1996 drug trial blamed for the deaths of 11 children and disabilities in dozens of others.

But even as the compensation process began, the company faced further criticism since only four families were paid in the initial disbursements, while some 200 children participated in the trial of meningitis drug Trovan.

Parents of four of the children who died received cheques of $175,000 each at a ceremony in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, where the trial took place.

A dispute over whether DNA testing should be used to verify the identification of victims had held up compensation payments.

Thursday’s payments followed the release of eight results of DNA tests of 546 saliva swabs of claimants, said Abubakar Bashir Wali, who heads the claims verification committee.

“Out of these eight results, four died as a result of their participation in the clinical trial and each is entitled to … $175,000 as full and final settlement of compensation,” Wali said at the ceremony.

The other four claimants suffered deformities and would be paid compensation commensurate with their disabilities, Wali said.

“We are pleased that these four individuals, the first group of qualified claimants…have received compensation,” Pfizer said in a statement it issued from New York.

The statement described the initial payments as a “milestone in the implementation of the settlement agreement reached by Kano state government and Pfizer”.

“The compensation cannot replace my loss, but will only cushion the hardship the drug trial caused me and my family,” Hauwa Umar, who lost a child, said between sobs.

Outside the ceremony, a group of claimants accused the compensation committee of unnecessary delay in the verification and payment of claims.

“It is frustrating that 10 months after taking over 500 swabs for DNA tests only eight results have been released despite assurance that the results would be out within six weeks,” Surajo Hassan said.

Hassan said his nephew suffered deafness from the trial.

“The procedures contained in the settlement agreement are quite cumbersome, and we appeal to all stakeholders to be patient…,” Wali said at the ceremony.

The payments were part of a $75 million out-of-court-settlement reached between Pfizer and Kano state government in July 2009 over the drug trial.

The trial occurred during a meningitis epidemic that, according to Pfizer, killed nearly 12,000 people.

Pfizer says it was given approval from government authorities and about 200 children were involved in the trial, half of whom were treated with Trovan. It has argued that Trovan helped save lives.

But France-based medical charity Doctors Without Borders, which was at the time urgently trying to treat meningitis victims in Nigeria, has harshly criticised Pfizer over the trial.