Appeals court rules that Nigerian families can sue Pfizer in US

doi:10.1136/bmj.b458

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Jeanne Lenzer

¹New York

A US federal appellate court has ruled that 88 Nigerian families can continue their lawsuit in the United States against Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker. The 2-1 decision, issued by the Second Circuit Court in New York on 30 January, will allow the plaintiffs to reinstate their suit claiming that Pfizer conducted an illegal drug trial in 1996 during an outbreak of bacterial meningitis in Kano state, Nigeria.

The families allege that Pfizer conducted the study of its experimental drug trovafloxacin (Trovan) without obtaining informed consent (BMJ 2006;332:1233, doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7552.1233-a). According to court documents, the families claim that Pfizer gave the experimental …