Medical+Testing+in+Nigeria+-+Valerie

A controversial subject of many studies and debates is the “ethical conduct of human research” (“Improvements”).One major issue being addressed is the unjust conduct of scientists using “research involving humans in developing countries” (“Improvements”). Typically these countries are not as medically advanced as its counterparts and must rely on other counties, such as the United States, to aid them. Therefore, “to a large extent [they] rely on the regulatory processes of developed countries to determine the safety of drugs” (“Improvements”). However, this dependency on foreign resources has introduced hundreds of thousands of African natives to unauthorized drug testing. In 1996, a famous Clinical trail arose against Pfizer for distributing unapproved antibiotic drugs to “nearly 100 children and infants” (“Protection”). Joe Stephens conducted a report in the Washington post in which he states “Pfizer never obtained authorization from the Nigerian government to give the unproven drug [Trovan]” to anyone (“Protection”). Basically sickly children would be taken to receive treatment and “the parents were not informed their children were given an experimental antibiotic” (“Protection”). It was later revealed that Pfizer and fabricated a letter of approval from the Nigerian ethics committee. One girl, regarded as patient No.0069, was given trovan for a period of three days and died instead of being treated with an approved antibiotic. For five years Pfizer was able to buy silence until whistle blowers brought the evidence into the public eye. Despite the irrefutable evidence of abuse of authority and power “group of 30 Nigerian parents, represented by a U.S. law firm, Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman, failed to obtain justice in a U.S. court” (“Protection”).

Safety Warning Provided with the **Approved** Trovan :

THE SAFETY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF TROVAFLOXACIN IN PEDIATRIC PATIENTS AND ADOLESCENTS LESS THAN 18 YEARS OF AGE, PREGNANT WOMEN, AND NURSING WOMEN HAVE NOT BEEN ESTABLISHED Trovan- ASSOCIATED LIVER ENZYME ABNORMALITIES, SYMPTOMATIC HEPATITIS, JAUNDICE, AND LIVER FAILURE (INCLUDING RARE REPORTS OF ACUTE HEPATIC NECROSIS WITH EOSINOPHILIC INFILTRATION, LIVER TRANSPLANTATION AND/OR DEATH) HAVE BEEN REPORTED WITH BOTH SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM DRUG EXPOSURE IN MEN AND WOMEN. Trovan USE EXCEEDING 2 WEEKS IN DURATION IS ASSOCIATED WITH A SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED RISK OF SERIOUS LIVER INJURY. LIVER INJURY HAS ALSO BEEN REPORTED FOLLOWING Trovan RE-EXPOSURE. CLINICIANS SHOULD MONITOR LIVER FUNCTION TESTS (e.g., AST, ALT, BILIRUBIN) IN Trovan RECIPIENTS WHO DEVELOP SIGNS OR SYMPTOMS CONSISTENT WITH HEPATITIS. CLINICIANS SHOULD CONSIDER DISCONTINUING Trovan IN THOSE PATIENTS WHO DEVELOP LIVER FUNCTION TEST ABNORMALITIES.

Some quotes about the Case:

"Chairman of Pfizer/Kano State Government Healthcare Meningitis Board of Trustees Justice Abubakar Bashir Wali (rtd) absolved the trustees of any blame, saying all that they were doing was in the interest of the victims and the state in general" ("Trust").

"It was learnt that many who did not participate in the clinical trial have turned up to claim for compensation as more than 600 persons collected Pfizer compensation claims forms produced by the trustees. And only 200 persons indeed took part in the 1996 illegal test and the genuine claimants could only be picked from the 600 people who collected the forms through the DNA Trovan test, according to findings" ("Trust").

"...sharing of the 35 million dollars meant for the 200 participants. According to the compensation formula, each of the 200 claimants will collect 175,000 dollars.." ("Trust").

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