Thursday, April 02, 2009

Pfizer - Trovan: nearly out of Africa?

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Nigeria is close to reaching a $75 million out-of-court settlement with Pfizer Inc over a 1996 drug trial it says killed 11 children and left dozens disabled, sources close to the negotiations said on Wednesday.

Nigeria's federal government and its northern state of Kano sued the world's largest drugmaker in May 2007 for $8.5 billion in damages over the testing of the antibiotic Trovan in Kano during a meningitis epidemic which killed 12,000 children.

The New York-based firm denies all charges and says meningitis, not Trovan, killed the children or damaged their health. It said Trovan saved lives and was as effective as a more established drug used for comparison in the study.

Two sources close to the negotiations said Pfizer was expected to respond within days to a proposal that it pay $10 million in legal fees to Nigeria's federal government, $30 million to Kano state and $35 million to the victims and families.

More at Reuters

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