Is Africa the dumping ground for Pharmaceutical company experimental drugs?!

Is Africa the dumping ground for Pharmaceutical company experimental drugs?

This report reinforces my long held view that Africa is the dumping ground for Drug company's experimental drugs.
What do you think?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/676879...

Anger at deadly Nigerian drug trials
By Senan Murray
BBC News website, Kano

In school, Anas Mohammadu's mates call him "horror" and make fun of him.

When the 14-year-old goes to bed at night, he dreams of becoming a soldier.


Anas survived the treatment, but was permanently damaged His father, Muhammadu Mustapha, knows his son's dream is unlikely to come true. "It's only a pipedream. You don't become a soldier with weak and wobbly legs and a permanently drooling mouth," he says bitterly. "He tires too quickly. The other day, he was trying to draw water from a well and the small bucket almost pulled him into the well."

But Anas is lucky to be alive.

Deformities

Many other children who were used in the controversial 1996 drug trial by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer died.

The Americans and some local Nigerian doctors gave Anas this evil drug Anas's father

Anas, then only three years old, was the first child to be given the experimental antibiotic Trovan at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kano, during the drug trial.

Pfizer tested the then unregistered drug in Nigeria's north-western Kano State during an outbreak of meningitis which had affected thousands of children.

Officials in Kano say more than 50 children died in the experiment, while many others developed mental and physical deformities.

But Pfizer says only 11 of the 200 children used in the drug trial died.

"From our records, the fatalities were only 11, but the survival rate was 94 per cent," Pfizer spokesman in New York, Bryant Haskins, told the BBC News website.

Following pressure from rights groups and families affected by the trial, the Nigerian government set up an expert medical panel to review the drug trial.

The experiment was "an illegal trial of an unregistered drug", the Nigerian panel concluded, and a "clear case of exploitation of the ignorant".

'Verbal consent'

Pfizer denies any wrongdoing and reiterates its position that its trial of Trovan was conducted in accordance with Nigerian regulations.

Hajara survived the trials but cannot now hear or speak

"These allegations against Pfizer, which are not new, are highly inflammatory and not based on all the facts," Mr Haskins, recently told Reuters news agency.

He also said the trial had helped save lives.

The company has previously said that "verbal consent" had been obtained from the parents of the children concerned and that the exercise was "sound from medical, scientific, regulatory and ethical standpoints".

But Mr Mustapha is still burning with anger.

"My son was ill and we took him to the hospital like any other family would. Then the Americans and some local Nigerian doctors injected Anas with this evil drug."

Another man, Hassan Sani, says his daughter Hajara, 14, was also given the drug.

He says the pill made his daughter deaf and unable to speak, and he wants the doctors involved to be treated as criminals.


We did not suspect that our children were being used for an experiment

Hajara's father
"The American doctors took advantage of our illiteracy and cheated us and our children. We thought they were helping us," Mr Sani says.

"We did not suspect that our children were being used for an experiment. They have cheated us and our children. All I can say is that God will judge them according to their evil deeds.

"Where there is a crime, there must be punishment."

'Charges'

After more than a decade of silence, the Nigerian government has decided to sue Pfizer, seeking $7bn (£3.5bn) in damages for the families of children who allegedly died or suffered side-effects in the experiment.

Kano State government has also filed separate charges against Pfizer.

But Mr Sani says compensation will not be enough.

"In addition to the compensation, they should be killed like the children they have killed," he says.

The Pfizer experiment was cited by many as a reason for the mass rejection of polio vaccinations in many parts of northern Nigeria in recent years.

Some local Islamic preachers said there was a western plot to sterilise Muslim women.

After several tests were carried out to proving the vaccine's safety, the programme has now been resumed.

Whether the families ever receive compensation, it will never be enough to bring back Anas's lost dreams of becoming a soldier.

3 weeks ago
Rockford, It's evidently clear that you didn't bother to read the article,did you.
Firstly, the drug trial was with an experimental antibiotic called Troven and was used on children with maningitis. Since you obviously approve of and believe it's some sort of noble gesture for African's to submit them selves as guinea pigs for experimental drug trials, may I suggest to you to also submit yourself for the next experimental drug trial. MMMM just as I thaught, your pathetic silence is deafening....

3 weeks ago
Cesar A, you are quite right, I guess I did answer my own question, however, I wasn't seeking my opinion. I was seeking yours.

First they call old epidemic diseases 'AIDS' and then they sell them our most toxic drugs and when thy die thet say "Oh look, they are dying of AIDS'.

Criminal madness.

Every epidemic disease is now renamed 'AIDS' under the Bangui Definition.

Mortalities (non natural) in S.A. remain at the same 2.2% P.A. that they were BEFORE AIDS. Either every other disease in the region vanished overnight or 'AIDS' is simply the old diseases with a new name. You decide.

-------------

In Africa, the continent supposedly being decimated by
HIV, HIV tests are rarely ever done, so there the idea
that all patients with AIDS are infected with HIV is
based entirely on supposition.

At a WHO conference in the Central African Republic in 1985, U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) introduced the "Bangui Definition" of AIDS in Africa.

The CDC officials later explained, "The definition was reached by consensus, based mostly on the delegates' experience in treating AIDS patients. It has proven a useful tool in determining the extent of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, especially in areas where no testing is available.

It's major components were prolonged fevers (for a month or more), weight loss of 10% or greater, and prolonged diarrhea..."(McCormick, 1996). Where AIDS is diagnosed clinically, large numbers of AIDS patients test negative for HIV. As no HIV testing is required in Africa we have no idea how many AIDS cases there are HIV positive (De ####, 1991; Gilks, 1991; Widy-Wirski, 1988).

_______

Other conditions common in underprivileged and
impoverished communities that are known to cause false
positive results are tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis and leprosy (Burke, 1993; Challakeree, 1993; Johnson, 1998; Kashala, 1994; MacKenzie,1992; Meyer, 1987). In fact, these are the primary health threats in Africa; several million cases of tuberculosis and malaria are reported in Africa each year - more than all the AIDS cases reported in Africa since 1982 (WHO, 1998)*.