Pfizer (PFE) Nigerian Suit Settled Over Trovan

Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) said it has settled all outstanding lawsuits involving accusations that it tested the experimental antibiotic Trovan on children in Nigeria during a 1996 meningitis outbreak without receiving adequate prior consent.

Financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but papers filed in U.S. federal court in New York noted the immediate dismissal of pending cases involving allegations of harm to children who were given the drug during the clinical testing in Nigeria.

Pfizer has argued that meningitis and not its antibiotic led to deaths of 11 children and harm to dozens of others in the 200-patient trial in the Nigerian state of Kano.

"The cases have been amicably resolved after many years of litigation. The settlement will bring an end to all litigation pertaining to Trovan in the United States and Nigeria and allow for just compensation for participants in the study and their families," Pfizer said in a statement.



Source: Reuters