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FG Drags Pfizer Top Shots to Court Over Killer-Drugs

Vanguard
Ise-Oluwa Ige
26 July 2007

The Federal Government yesterday charged the world biggest pharmaceutical company, Pfizer Incorporated and eight others before a Federal high court sitting in Abuja with criminal application of a killer-drug known as "Trovafloxacin," more than a decade ago, on 200 Nigerian children, terminating lives of many of them, with others suffering various permanent disabilities.

The eight others are Pfizer Nigeria , Isa Dutse, Scott Hopkins, Debra Williams, Mike Dunne, Samuel Ohuabunwa, Robert Buhl and William Steere.They are facing a 23-count charge.Though the case came up for mention in court yesterday the accused persons could not be arraigned because they were not in court. The trial high court judge, Justice Anwuri Chikere has however issued an order directing security agents to get all the accused persons for arraignment on October 29, this year.

The charge itself, Vanguard learnt, was filed at the registry of the Federal High Court, Abuja , yesterday. It was dated May 3, 2007 and signed by Mahammad Saidu Diri on behalf of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.

In the criminal charge with registration number FHC/ABJ/CR/ 47/07 filed in court, the accused persons were alleged to have engaged in bribing and forging of documents to cover up the crime, as well as engaging in illegal importation of the said killer drug.

The said crimes were allegedly committed on April 3, 1996, when some personnel of the company allegedly used an outbreak of meningitis in Kano to conduct an unlawful clinical trial of the drug on infected children, leading to adverse reactions.

Pfizer Incorporated, Scott Hopkins and Isa Dutse were separately accused of offering on 30th of June, 1996, a staff of the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, a total $20,000, to procure a forged and back-dated letter of approval for the clinical trial conducted in April 1996.

Both the offer of bribe and the importation of the drug, its possession and application, are said to have been in flagrant violation of laws governing such activities in Nigeria, particularly the National Drug Formulary and Essential Drugs List Act Cap N29 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

Copyright © 2007 Vanguard

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