Pfizer - Trovan : just like a John Le Carré novel

A panel of Nigerian medical experts has concluded that Pfizer violated international law during a 1996 epidemic by testing an unapproved drug on children with brain infections at a field hospital.

That finding is detailed in a lengthy Nigerian government report that has remained unreleased for five years, despite inquiries from the children's attorneys and from the media. The Washington Post recently obtained a copy of the confidential report, which is attracting congressional interest. It was provided by a source who asked to remain anonymous because of personal safety concerns.

The report concludes that Pfizer never obtained authorization from the Nigerian government to give the unproven drug to nearly 100 children and infants. Pfizer selected the patients at a field hospital in the city of Kano, where the children had been taken to be treated for an often deadly strain of meningitis.

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Last week, Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the senior Democrat on the International Relations Committee, described the report's findings as "absolutely appalling" and called on Pfizer to open its records.

"I think it borders on the criminal that the large pharmaceutical companies, both here and in Europe, are using these poor, illiterate and uninformed people as guinea pigs," Lantos said.

Not too long ago GSK's CEO JP Garnier got hot under the collar about the movie "The Constant Gardener".

"Jean-Pierre Garnier, head of GlaxoSmithKline, Europe's biggest pharmaceutical company, hasn't seen the film, but he has read the book. 'It's complete fiction, presented as reality and the public don't fall for it,' he claims. 'I am sure the movie is entertaining, but it has nothing to do with the real world, not even 10 per cent of it.'"

The irony is nearly perfect.

If it wasnt so tragic and scary a story Insider would split his sides laughing.