{"id":13838,"date":"2021-05-07T22:03:47","date_gmt":"2021-05-08T05:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/?p=13838"},"modified":"2021-05-07T22:04:08","modified_gmt":"2021-05-08T05:04:08","slug":"pfizer-nigeria-drug-trial-victims-get-compensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/2021\/05\/07\/pfizer-nigeria-drug-trial-victims-get-compensation\/","title":{"rendered":"Pfizer: Nigeria drug trial victims get compensation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

US-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has made the first compensation payment to Nigerian families affected by a controversial drug trial 15 years ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It paid $175,000 (\u00a3108,000) each to four families in the first of a series of payments it is expected to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The payouts are part of an out-of-court settlement reached in 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1996, 11 children died and dozens were left disabled after Pfizer gave them the experimental anti-meningitis drug, Trovan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The payouts were made to the parents of four of the children who died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their parents told the BBC they welcomed the payment, but it would not replace the loss of their loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years Pfizer maintained that meningitis – not the drug – caused the deaths and disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after a lengthy and expensive litigation process, it reached a settlement with the Kano government in northern Nigeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DNA tests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The trials were carried out in Kano and the state government fought Pfizer on behalf of victims and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hajara\"\/
image captionHajara, photographed in 2007, survived the trials but became deaf afterwards and is unable to speak<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

It could take another year for payments to be concluded, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pfizer also agreed to sponsor health projects in Kano as well as creating a fund of $35m to compensate those affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pfizer said it was pleased the four had been compensated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We thank them for their commitment and dedication to seeing this process through in the most timely and transparent way possible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source 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 (\u00a3108,000) 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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13838"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13840,"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13838\/revisions\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}