Pfizer Compensates Trovan Victims

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Healthcare Meningitis Trust Fund LTD billed to facilitate the compensation of victims of 1996 Trovan test conducted in Kano by international pharmaceutical company, Pfizer Incorporated, today in Kano, North-West Nigeria presented cheques of $175,000 each to relatives of four of the victims that died while participating in the clinical trial.

Malam Usman Garba, Hajia Hauwa Umar, Malam Ado Hussaini and Malam Rabiu Isah received the cheques from the management of the Trust Fund.

Hajia Hauwa, full of emotion, said that she lost one of her children during the 1996 Trovan trial.

“I had given up on the incident. I never knew that this moment will come. Though I still mourn my child, I thank God for this day,” she said.

P.M.NEWS recalls that in 1996, Pfizer conducted a clinical trial on selected patients at Infectious Diseases Hospital, IDH, on France Road, Kano. in the course of the trial during which Trovan drug was administered to the patients, 11 children lost their lives while 22 others suffered various degrees of deformity.

Devastated by the incident, Kano state government instituted a legal action against Pfizer in 2007. The case dragged for about two years until Kano state government and Pfizer entered a truce and agreed an out-of-court settlement.

And a Release and Non-prosecution Agreement was signed by both parties. The terms of the agreement include re-imbursing the Kano state Government for all legal expenses; construction of a modern Diagnostic and Disease Control Centre in Kano; and establishment of Healthcare Meningitis Trust Board with a mandate to identify the actual participants of the Pfizer clinical trials and also, recommend to Pfizer the amount of compensation to be paid to the participants.

 

—Maduabuchi Nmeribeh/Kano

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