Leadership (Abuja)
12 May 2008
As both Kano State and the Federal Government resume their legal battle against Pfizer Pharmaceutical Limited over a Trovan clinical study, which allegedly killed 200 children in Kano, there were strong indications during the weekend that the parties to the case might settle out of court.
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I wonder why people react sentimentally to issues that can be empirically verified. True, some pharmaceutical companies may be bad, but in this case it is clear that Pfizer has come out clean. Pfizer's record during the Trovan Trials were better than those of Medicine Sans Frontier, Doctors Without Borders. Nobody has accused MSF of trying to depopulate Kano. The attempt to fleece Pfizer is ungodly.
As a Nigerian of northern extraction, I know that Pfizer has been of immense assistance to our people for about 50 years. Right now people are dying of cholera in our part of the world. Was that caused by Pfizer too. How I wish that there were many more Pfizers to help develop our capacity to fight epidemics and serious infections.
I am convinced that anyone who looks through all the information relating to the Trovan Trials will agree that Pfizer did not do anything wrong. They were given approval by the same Nigerian government that is now suing the firm. They were also cleared by the Dora Akunyili-led National Agency for Food and Drug Control (NAFDAC). If the cases in court are allowed to play out, our people will lose out.
Those of us who are not blinded by cheap sentiments have forensically examined all the evidence in the various cases and we believe that it is in the interest of our people not to continue dragging the case because in the final analysis we might lose everything. The fact that Pfizer is even ready to pay some kind of compensation and rehabilitate some of our decaying health infrastructure is quite gladdening.
We should embrace dialogue. Sure, we need all the help we can get, but self-appointed do-gooders should not compound our problems. Pfizer is not an enemy of Kano people because a healthy relationship spanning decades ties us together.
These pharmaceutical companies are mass murderers... and don't for a moment imagine that they did not know they were experimenting dangerously with the lives of African children. This enrages me beyond words! May Justice Prevail here to the full extent. Even then will they ever stop seeing the lives of Africans as being worthless and expendable? Someone must stop them. Soon they will be enforcing all sorts of vaccinations and God knows what will be in them...