Page 25 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 14
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Wholeness




          he couldn’t hear anything again – I   meningitis, but not yet approved for
          knew that it was Pfizer who gave   that use or for treatment of children   “We didn’t even leave the hospi-
          him the drugs”. Maryam insists no   by the US Food and Drug Adminis-  tal before a reaction manifested.
          one told her that Pfizer was testing   tration (FDA). The company admin-  Soon after, I developed paraly-
          out a new drug.                    istered a drug trial of Trovan and   sis in my legs,” Bello says, while
                                             a second drug, Ceftriaxone, then a   struggling to maintain a stable
          The story of  a 1996 Pfizer drug   standard treatment for meningitis, to   sitting position during the inter-
          trial and its outcomes and aftermath   some 200 children.             view.
          is linked to the current COVID-19   A Question of  Consent
          vaccination boycott in communities   Pfizer has maintained that they
          like Kano State  - vaccine hesitancy   obtained prior verbal consent from   meningitis, not the drugs they ad-
                                                                                ministered. (Pfizer did not respond
          does not only apply to situations   all parents for the experiment, but   to multiple requests for comment
          where vaccine uptake is low because   parents like Maryam and trial partic-  for this story.)
          of  poor availability but also because   ipants like 29-year-old Bala Bello tell
          of  distrust and safety concerns -   a different story.               In 1998, the license for Trovan for
          based on experience.               Bello, a graduate of Business Ad-  use by adults was withdrawn from
                                                                                the European Medical Agency,
                                             ministration from Bayero University   because of concerns over serious
          Drug Trials During an Outbreak     Kano, was four- years-old during the   medical problems and multiple
          In June 1996, a severe meningitis   meningococcal meningitis outbreak.   deaths. It was withdrawn from the
          outbreak rocked Nigeria, an infec-  His hometown was the epicenter of   US market in 1999 for the same rea-
          tion that caused inflammation of   the outbreak, which left scores dead   sons, though at the time Pfizer said
          the brain and spinal cord linings and   in Kano State.                trials had revealed no side effects.
          spread through sneezing.                                              It appears results from the trial in
          As of March 4, 1996, the infection   Bello recounted what his mother   Kano State were never published.
          had spread to 12 states in Nigeria in   told him happened. “I was ill and
          the space of six months, leading to   taken to the  Infectious Diseases   What followed in the years after the
          over 100,000 cases and a fatality rate   Hospital (IDH), popularly known as   drug trial would be a lengthy legal
          of 10.7% – meaning it caused death   ‘Asibitin Zana’ located along France   battle between Pfizer, the Nigerian
          in one in every ten patients with the   Road in Kano”, he explained. “I   government, and the families of the
          infection.  It was the most severe   was given some drugs, which no one   children involved.
          epidemic of the illness ever record-  explained to her (my mum) what the
          ed in Nigeria.                     said drugs were meant for.”        From Drug Trial to Legal Trial
                                                                                In June 2007, the Nigerian federal
          The outbreak, which lasted over    Bello’s mum had assumed the drugs   government and the Kano State
          three months, saw the combined     were for the treatment of meningi-  government filed criminal and civil
          efforts of a National Task Force   tis, but shortly after the drugs had   suits against Pfizer and eight other
          set up by Nigeria’s Federal Ministry   been administered to him he devel-  defendants, asking for $7 billion in
          of Health, the WHO, UNICEF,        oped an unexpected side effect.    damages. The suit charged that the
          UNDP, Médecins Sans Frontières,                                       company had tested an unapproved
          the International Red Cross and    It was “soon after I was paralysed,   and experimental drug on children
          several other non-governmental     that my mother got to know that it   with neither informed consent from
          organizations to bring the epidemic   was Pfizer who had given her the   parents, nor approval from the Ni-
          under control, but not without scars   drugs from their experiment,” Bello   gerian government. Pfizer countered
          left behind for some families in   recalls.                           that such approval wasn’t necessary.
          Kano State.
                                             Of the participants in the trial, 11   In 2001, an investigation by the
          In addition to the international task   children died and dozens of others   Washington Post uncovered that a
          force, the US-based pharmaceutical   were left with debilitating injuries:   document Pfizer claimed to prove
          company Pfizer was in Kano at the   blindness, paralysis, deafness, and   ethical approval by Nigerian au-
          time with an antibiotic drug called   neurological deficits, which the   thorities for the trial appeared to be
          Trovan, expected to potentially treat   company maintains are the result of   falsified and back-dated.



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