Northern Nigerian authorities have filed a US$2 billion civil case and were preparing criminal charges against US drug company Pfizer, accusing it of conducting a drug experiment that led to deaths and disabilities in a group of children more than a decade ago, court papers said.
A notice of intent to file criminal charges, seen on Wednesday, was submitted on May 9 and the civil case was filed on May 17. Officials said the civil suit could open as soon as Monday. It was not clear when the criminal case -- to be lodged against eight Pfizer officials -- would begin, officials said.
A report in the Washington Post said the criminal charges had been brought, but officials in Kano said on Wednesday prosecutors had taken only a preliminary step in that direction.
New York-based Pfizer has denied any wrongdoing. A federal court in Manhattan dismissed a 2001 lawsuit by disabled Nigerians who allegedly took part in the study, but the matter is under appeal.
In a statement this week, Pfizer said allegations in the Nigeria cases "are simply untrue -- they weren't valid when they were first raised years ago and they're not valid today."
It also said the Pfizer study was conducted "in a responsible and ethical way consistent with the company's abiding commitment to patient safety."
In the civil suit, authorities in northern Nigeria's Kano state allege Pfizer illegally conducted a drug experiment on 200 children during a meningitis epidemic in the state's main city, also called Kano, in 1996, resulting in deaths, brain damage, paralysis and slurred speech in many of the children.
Pfizer treated 100 meningitis-infected children with an experimental antibiotic, Trovan. Another 100 children, control patients in the study, received an approved antibiotic, ceftriaxone -- but the dose was lower than recommended, the families' lawyers claim.
Up to 11 children in the study died, while others suffered physical disabilities and brain damage. But Pfizer always insisted its records show none of the deaths were linked to Trovan or substandard treatment.
Authorities in Kano state are blaming the Pfizer controversy for widespread suspicion of government public health policies, particularly the global effort to vaccinate children against polio, which has met strong resistance in northern Nigeria.
The polio vaccine boycott "by citizens of Kano state is a direct consequence of the 1996 actions" of Pfizer, state prosecutor Aliyu Umar said in the court documents.
Islamic leaders in largely Muslim Kano had seized on the Pfizer controversy as evidence of a US-led conspiracy. Rumors that polio vaccines spread AIDS or infertility spurred Kano and another heavily Muslim state, Zamfara, to boycott a long-term campaign to vaccinate millions.
Vaccination programs restarted in Nigeria in 2004 after an 11-month boycott. But the delay set back global eradication -- the boycott was blamed for causing an outbreak that spread the disease across Africa and into the Middle East.
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