Agnes Licata There are lives that are worth less than others. It's that way forever. But what is the life of a Nigerian child, what is more affected by a fatal disease such as meningitis? In the perfect world and there is only right that nell'ingenuità of children, there can be no price for the life of a human being, whatever his age, his sex, his wallet, in which the nation was born. In the real world, however, succeeds another. What happens is that a multinational pharmaceutical company decides to take advantage of the emergency health care in a developing country to test a new drug on children. No matter if this has not yet obtained the license to be used on adults. It matters little if the side effects are still virtually unknown. It matters even less if in a crisis situation, start a trial hinder rather than help and relief. No matter when it launches a drug from which it expects revenue from dizziness. Faced with a billion dollars a year, that weight can have the life of two hundred African children? But first things first. On June 4 should begin the process that will see the Kano State (in northern Nigeria) oppose to one of the largest multinational pharmaceutical companies, the "Pfizer International. To understand who you are talking, just to mention two more drugs sold by this American company: Viagra, the famous blue pill for impotence, and Lipitor, one of the most prescribed products to combat cholesterol. The crux of the litigation of the case in Nigeria dates back to 1996 when an epidemic of meningitis, cholera and measles hit northern Nigeria. Thousands of deaths in a region so poor as to have only one hospital against infectious diseases. Upon arrival, the association of "Doctors without borders" is located in front of a dilapidated building without water and electricity in many salt rats on rotting corpses. To try to stem the disaster, brings with it a common and inexpensive antibiotic, chloramphenicol. Meanwhile, overseas, Pfizer is working on a new drug, Trovan, an antibiotic that aims to treat a very wide range of infections. In the U.S. clinical trials - that the tests necessary to obtain approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for marketing - are still on the high seas. According to the usual "evil speech", then the Trovan had been tested only on pigs. The official statement by the corporation, however, say that 5 thousand patients had already taken the drug. In any case, the approval the FDA will come only months later, in 1997. Testing on children will not speak. In the U.S., to expand the use of a drug to children is necessary to make a further trial after those in adults and to wait a certain period after its entry into the market. Before being given to younger patients, in fact, be sure that there are no serious side effects on other patients. America, however, poses no such restrictions and protections if the children are not Americans. A company can easily carry out trials abroad without ensuring this procedure. Pfizer was planning to test the effectiveness of Trovan meningitis also on the child, to increase even more future sales. Too bad that the United States to find the volunteers needed for the test is virtually impossible: too few cases of meningitis. And it is here that someone can think of Pfizer's epidemic in Nigeria. Here there are cases galore. A small consignment of medical devices is set up in a hurry. It takes six weeks to twelve months instead of the design commonly required. In addition, within only three weeks of arrival in Kano to do: select the young patients, begin to administer the medication, check its effectiveness and follow the whole course. Moreover, in the minds of all multinationals - pharmaceutical and non - in developing countries are little more than simple supermarkets from which to take what you need without too many problems: energy resources but also human lives. The result of that experimentation comes to light only in 2000, thanks to an inquiry from The Washington Post. Of the two hundred children selected by Pfizer, 18 died and 182 were affected by deafness, blindness, deformities, paralysis. Absurd numbers that represent the strength of the prosecution at the trial of June 4. In recent years, the pharmaceutical company defended itself against accusations of arrogance with Nigerian parents: the children would have died anyway, in fact, many would not have survived without even the saving Trovan. Needless to ask why they chose to administer the drug to orally rather than intravenously, this last method, which ensures a more rapid (and thus almost the only one used in the United States on the cases of meningitis). In any case, says Pfizer, the cards were all in place, with so much approval by the hospital ethics committee of Kano, which was sent to the Nigerian government. Small detail: at the time - March 1996 - there was such a committee. The denial comes from Sadiq Wali, the medical director of the hospital: "There was no ethics committee at the time. It was created in October of 1996, about six months after the test. " The charge is paid to Pfizer of deliberately pre-dated the letter to cover their backs. After all, who would have control? In 1996 Nigeria was controlled by an easy-to-military government corruption. The papers raise some suspicion is undeniable, particularly as regards the way in which patients were selected. If such a thing happen in any Western country, doctors should make parents sign a release. In Nigeria, however, Pfizer has benefited not only the desperation of many people, but also illiteracy. No release was signed. The corporation maintains that all information has been given orally. The testimony of the parents, however, say more. They say they believe that those doctors were not the Pfizer but for "Doctors without borders", as the shelter of the association was not far away. They say they were not informed that their children would be given a drug not yet tested. Moreover, to conclude the entire three weeks you can not go too subtle. Now, more than ten years after the case of Kano, what happened to the Trovan? In 1997, the FDA granted approval. In a short time, has become one of the most prescribed antibiotics in the U.S.. The experiment in Nigeria is not enough to Pfizer for obtaining permission for use on American children. Within a few months, in addition, they started to find severe liver damage in patients taking Trovan. Result? In 1999 the FDA decided to restrict the prescription of the drug are a few particularly serious cases and only in hospitals. The European equivalent of the FDA chose to ban completely the use. If these were the effects on adult patients in the West and food hygiene conditions very different from those that can be found in Africa, surprisingly, it took just three days of administration, to kill a child in Nigeria a decade just 19 kg of weight? While waiting for if and how the process will start against Pfizer, perhaps enough to think that African children, how the doctors of a multinational have not tried to save it with another drug. Suffice it to think that this was only for money, claiming that the laws of the so-called advanced nations begin to consider equally important to the life of a Western child and everyone else in the world.
The world turns only out of ignorance.
Charles Baudelaire
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