US pharmaceutical company Pfizer has been charged with conducting medical experiments on Nigerian children unbeknownst to their parents.
This multibillion dollar drug company had developed a new treatment for meningitis. In 1997 the drug was cleared for use in America for adults, but two years later when liver damage and death were associated with its use it has been restricted in the US and has been banned throughout Europe.
Nigeria experienced a serious meningitis epidemic in 1996, one year before Trovan (the new drug) was cleared for adult use in the US. In this crisis Pfizer found the perfect conditions to test its new drug – and not on just any specimen, on the category most vulnerable to side effects – children and infants.
Pfizer has defended itself by claiming that the parents were notified this was an experimental drug and that the trial was not an attempt to gather clinical data, but an effort to help sick children in a poor region of Nigeria.
I, for one, find Pfizer’s defense difficult to swallow for two reasons:
1. At the same facility another drug (chloramphenical) was being offered for free that has been in regular use since 1949. Why would a parent choose an experimental, untested drug if there is an alternative that has been tested and proven effective since 1949. I’m sure it is difficult for Pfizer to find willing parents but secretly experimenting on third world children is unacceptable.
2. The test consisted of two groups: Those using Trovan and those using a competitor’s drug that is known to be an effective meningitis treatment. Those given the other drug were given doses lower than recommended – thus making Trovan appear to be far more effective. If this was not an attempt to gather clinical data, why did they create two control groups?
Five children given Trovan (5%) and six given low doses of the “other drug” are now dead and there are an unknown number that have suffered the know side effects of Trovan – deafness, blindness and paralysis.
If it turns out that any of these children died as a result of medical testing done without parental consent, whoever organized this or had knowledge of what was going on is responsible for the death of a human being made in God’s image and should be put to death. We need to stop playing around with these legal drug pushers. Every year there are more reports about vaccines causing lifelong disabilities and even death in America.
Drugs for the sake of health are good. Unfortunately the drug companies need to create more drugs so they can have a patent for a few years until the generic brands may be legally produced. This practice leads to new drugs that are not even needed since effective, safe drugs already exist. The production of new drugs leads to testing which leads to unecessary risk to our health.
Think about this the next time you get a shot.