Nigerian state, Pfizer resume talks over drug trial

Nigeria’s northern state of Kano has resumed settlement talks with Pfizer Inc over a 1996 drug test that Nigeria says caused the death of 11 children and left dozens more disabled, lawyers said on Tuesday.

Kano has sued the world’s largest drug maker for $2 billion in damages and is pressing criminal charges over the testing of the antibiotic Trovan in the state during a 1996 meningitis epidemic that killed 12,000 children in six months.

Nigeria’s federal government is suing Pfizer for an additional $6.5 billion and is also trying to bring a criminal suit.

Pfizer denies all the charges and argues that meningitis, not Trovan, killed the children or damaged their health. It says Trovan saved lives and was effective as the other, established drug used for comparison in the study.

Talks between Kano and Pfizer on a possible out-of-court settlement stalled in December following disagreements over liabilities and compensation. The state High Court hearing the case later ordered the arrest of some top Pfizer staff after they failed to appear in court.

Speaking to reporters after a court hearing on the case on Tuesday, Kano state’s lead attorney Aliyu Umar acknowledged that settlement talks had restarted, saying: “We want a better package for the victims and all these legal issues will be thrashed out within a limited time.”

Pfizer’s defense lawyer said it was also willing to continue settlement talks with the federal and state authorities.

“We are trying to ensure a win-win situation. We think we can settle this matter in a way that will be satisfactory to all the parties,” Anthony Idigbe added.

Court sources said Pfizer had proposed at a meeting in Abuja last month to pay $10 million in compensation, rehabilitate the hospital where the Trovan study took place and upgrade Kano’s state-owned drug manufacturing company. It would also build a pediatric ward in one government hospital.

The authorities say Trovan was responsible for the 11 deaths and permanent health problems of scores of others. Nigeria also says Pfizer did not obtain proper regulatory approval for the trial on 200 children and misled parents.

Pfizer is arguing in a separate lawsuit in a Lagos court that the defendants were not served their criminal summons properly and therefore were not technically charged or obliged to appear in court.

The civil and criminal cases launched by the federal and state governments a year ago have developed into a tangle of unresolved petitions and side issues, dragging from one adjournment to the next.

No witness has been heard and no substantive issue tackled. The case in Kano was adjourned to May 27.