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Pfizer conducts a clinical trial with an unlicensed drug on children with meningitis in Nigeria.

1996

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During the meningococcal meningitis outbreak in Western Africa, Pfizer administers the experimental antibiotic trovafloxacin (Trovan) to 100 school children. The control group is given ceftriaxone, the gold-standard treatment for meningitis at the time, but in a significantly lower amount than the dosage approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Eleven children will die in the trial.

Nigerian officials will later file criminal and civil charges against Pfizer. Pfizer responds that: "the 1996 Trovan clinical study was conducted with the full knowledge of the Nigerian government and in a responsible and ethical way consistent with the company's abiding commitment to patient safety" (Lenzer, 2007). However, a report commissioned from the Nigerian government later will assert that Pfizer's conduct was illegal.

This case will become critical in the backlash against multinational corporations being called out for their unethical practices.