by Aminu AbubakarSat Jun 9, 2:03 PM ET
The frustrated Nigerian father spits out his venom against the US pharmaceuticals giant, calling it a vampire who preyed on poor, sick Africans to test new drugs -- and ruined his son's life.
The target of Mohammed Mustapha's wrath is Pfizer Inc., whom he blames, rightly or wrongly, for recurrent and debilitating bouts of illness that have plagued 14-year-old Anas for most of his life.
"I'm really happy that the government has finally taken up our case against these vampires that have wasted our children", Mustapha said with a smile of satisfaction.
He feels his boy served as a guinea pig in drug tests by Pfizer -- along with nearly 200 other children treated for meningitis during an outbreak in Kano, Nigeria's largest state.
It was 1996, a year before US regulators cleared the drug in question for use in the United States.
In the last month, both the Kano state and the Nigerian federal governments filed lawsuits seeking in total nearly 10 billion dollars (7.5 billion euros) against Pfizer, alleging it administered the youngsters an untested antibiotic called Trovan Floxacin without authorisation.
Pfizer fought back Tuesday, saying the "1996 Trovan clinical study was conducted with the full knowledge of the Nigerian government and in a responsible and ethical way."
"Any allegations in these lawsuits to the contrary are simply untrue -- they weren't valid when they were first raised years ago and they're not valid today," a company statement said. The case has been adjourned till June 26.
Outside his old mud house in Kano's Bachirawa district, Mustapha, 45, showed an AFP reporter a brown hospital admission card with the inscription "Pfizer Meningitis Study 154-159" and a white plastic patient identification band with the same inscription.
On April 3, 1996, Anas, then aged three, was admitted to Kano's Infectious Diseases hospital with an illness later diagnosed to be meningitis.
"For three days the doctor prescribed drugs for our son which we bought from a drug store and his situation began to normalise," said Mustapha.
"On the fourth day a team of three white men and a black man came and started administering injections on Anas after examining him.
"They did not say anything to us nor did we ask any question because we believed they were here to save our children," said the father.
With his monthly salary of 1,500 naira (12 dollars, nine euros) as a security guard, Mustapha was not in a position to turn down free treatment.
But after three days his son's condition began to deteriorate.
"Anas lost the use of his two legs and was drooling like an idiot," he said as the boy sat quietly beside him.
"He lost mental coordination and after three days of follow-ups they referred us to the Murtala Mohammed General hospital for continuous medication. We have been going to the hospital since then."
According to Mustapha, Anas still suffers from periodic complications to his central nervous system, joint pains severe enough to confine him to bed for several days twice a month and fever -- although he has regained the use of his legs.
"We don't send him on an errand or allow him to go out alone because he can get a seizure at any moment," Mustapha said.
The troubles delayed the boy's schooling and he now attends third grade, with classmates four years younger.
"Pfizer must be made to pay me compensation to mitigate the suffering they have caused us" and ensure some sort of future for Anas, Mustapha said.
Veiled, 30-year-old Umma Hassan recounted nearly the same scenario in Kano's Kurna district. Her daughter Hajara "was three when she became sick and was admitted to the IDH where we were told she had meningitis.
"We bought prescription medication for two days and on the third day some white people came and started treating her free and her situation became worrisome because every time they injected her she would faint and convulse," she said.
The girl, now 14, has been deaf since the Trovan trials and was unable to walk for a year after the treatment. She recently started a special class for the deaf, with children nine years her junior.
"I'm delighted that the government has taken this drug company to court seeking compensation on our behalf," said Hassan, as Hajara watched silently.
"We spent almost all we had on physiotherapy for Hajara to be able to walk again but we have given up on her hearing because it is evident she will never be able to use her ears."
In 1999, US and European drug regulators took action on Trovan after reports of liver trouble and deaths, with the former restricting its use to serious adult cases and the Europeans recommending its suspension from that market -- a decision that has been made permanent, according to the Pfizer website.
The Nigerian controversy only came to light in December 2000 by a Washington Post investigation.
Though embittered, Hassan feels some vindication.
"It is now that we know the government cares for us," she said, "and that we, too, are humans, 11 years after Pfizer considered us as animals they can use as guinea pigs."
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