MENINGITIS, EBOLA VIRUS,EXPERIMENTAL DRUGS AND THE REPEAT OF HISTORY
As I watched the current minister of Health,
Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu declare the
unfolding Ebola epidemic a national emergency while addressing the Press a few
days ago, my mind went back to 1996, when Dr Ihechukwu Madubuike, the then
Minster of Health addressed a World Press, calling for international help to
assist the Nation deal with a rampaging and particularly vicious Meningitis
epidemic that was decimating Nigerian Children. For many years, in the early
months of each year, Nigeria faces a bout of Meningitis epidemic particularly
in the Northern parts of Nigeria.
Thousands of lives are lost each year to this disease which causes the
inflammation of the lining of the brain, killing mercilessly. Up till then, the
only drug available for managing the disease was chloramphenicol, a very toxic
antibiotic which is hardly used all over the world now even for adults not to
talk of children.This has been an annual occurrence and every year, hundreds, if not thousands of
young Nigerians are killed or maimed by the disease, but in 1996, there was an
exacerbation that overwhelmed the Nation, leading to the appeal to the
international community to come and help us.
Pfizer International, an American
Pharmaceutical company with a subsidiary operations in Nigeria hearkened to
this call. In addition to bringing several medicinal products, medical
equipment and consumables loaded in a chartered cargo plane which were donated
to the Federal Government and the Kano State government, Pfizer decided to do a
limited clinical trial on a limited number of Children using its new drug,
Trovan that was undergoing clinical trials world wide. The drug was tested on
99 Children in Kano. It's efficacy and safety was measured against 101 Children
who were placed on Rocephin an approved competitor antibiotic product . Out of
the 99 patients who were on Trovan, the drug saved 94 patients, whereas out of
the 101 patients on Rocephin 95 were
saved. All the patients who completed
the trial were reviewed and followed up several weeks after the end of trial
and discharge from the hospital. The Children and their Parents were very
grateful to Pfizer. Both the Kano and
Federal governments were pleased with the goodwill shown by Pfizer. The company
and its representatives were pleased that they had responded to the needs of a
Nation in crisis and had helped helped save lives.
Pfizer Inc was jolted therefore to note that
several months after, a Nigerian medical doctor wrote a petition against Pfizer
to the Minister of Health accusing Pfizer of all sorts of things, including
conducting the trials without approvals. The Minister of Health then instituted
a board to investigate the accusations. The board of enquiry dismissed the
accusations, noting that they were made in bad faith and for selfish reasons.
The doctor was not satisfied with the verdict and then launched a full battle
against Pfizer.
He carried the battle to the media and
received very liberal support. When that did not yield the result, he took the
campaign to the United States of America and instituted a legal action . The
American Court dismissed the case. He returned to Nigeria and began to recruit
support for his cause. He and his group did all within their power and
influence to get the Kano and Federal governments to take over the matter and
take Pfizer to court. To achieve this, he and his cohorts maintained steady
adversarial media campaign against Pfizer.
Ten years after, in the middle of 2007, he
succeeded in getting what he wanted. In one fell swoop, Pfizer got four suits- two
from Kano state and two from the Federal government,one criminal, one civil on
each side. And to booth, three top local management staff of Pfizer Nigeria who
were in employment in the company when the trial was conducted in 1996 were
joined in the suits in their personal capacities. The suits were well
advertised in the media.
From 2007 to 2009, the matters ran in the
courts, especially at the Kano Court. Pfizer maintained its innocence insisting
that it did nothing wrong. It's trial drug neither killed nor maimed any child,
rather, it saved life and helped Nigeria overcome a distressful epidemic.
To save its former top local management staff
who had become pawns in the matter from the continuing embarrassment and pain
of going to the dusty courts of Kano every month, and following the
intervention of well meaning statesmen, Pfizer agreed to settle out of court.
This cost Pfizer a lot money including an agreement to build an infectious
diseases hospital in Kano. This twelve year ordeal of Pfizer reverberated all
over the World and has changed the attitude of the global Pharmaceutical
Industry towards clinical trials in Nigeria.
I have just skirted over the whole drama in
this article. Some day the whole story will be fully told of how the ' Good
Samaritan' became the victim largely because of the selfishness and greed of
some Nigerians who believe they must profiteer even with the lives of fellow
Nigerians. Nigerians would be shocked to know the full details and intrigues
that happened on the Trovan case. Therefore, when I read about the request of
Nigeria to the same United States to ask another Pharmaceutical Company to
donate an experimental drug which had only been given to two people who are
critically sick, the above story flooded into my mind. Trovan had been tested
on more than 5000 patients in clinical settings before being tried on the 99
children in Nigeria and the Nigerian campaigners said it was
"untested" and that the Nigerian Children were used as "guinea
pigs". I wonder what they would say about Zmapp which is still in the
preclinical stage, only tested in monkeys and just given to two critically ill
Amricans in the case of extreme emergency and hopelessness.
The adage says "once bitten, twice
shy". Little wonder I read lately, that America has declined Nigeria's
request to send them the experimental drug. Would you blame them? History has a
way of repeating itself.
Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa OFR
www.samohuabunwa.com
samohuabunwa@gmail.com
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