Settlement
Written by Elombah.com
Friday, 10 December 2010 23:10
Classified By: Economic Counselor Robert Tansey for reasons 1.4(B&D)
¶1. (C) Summary. In an April 2 meeting with the Ambassador, Pfizer lawyers Joe Petrosinelli and Atiba Adams reported that Pfizer and the Kano State government had reached a preliminary settlement on lawsuits arising from medical tests conducted with Trovan (oral antibiotic) on children living in Kano during a meningitis epidemic in 1996. Petrosinelli said Pfizer has agreed to the Kano State Attorney General’s (AG) settlement offer of $75
million, including a $10 million payment for legal fees, $30 million to the Kano State government, and $35 million for the participants and families. According to Adams, several final details need to be worked out on the mechanism for payment. Pfizer strongly recommends setting up a $35 million trust fund for the participants to be administered by a neutral third party and for the $30 million for the Kano State government to be used for improving health care in the state. Pfizer underscored that the Nigerian representatives wanted lump sum checks and that Pfizer is concerned with potential transparency issues. The next step is a meeting between high-level Pfizer officials and Nigerian side at a neutral location to work out the final details. End Summary.
¶2. (SBU) On April 2 Pfizer lawyers Joe Petrosinelli and Atiba Adams and Pfizer Nigeria Country Director Enrico Liggeri met with the Ambassador and EconDep to discuss the status of settlement negotiations. Four lawsuits were brought against Pfizer stemming from medical tests with the oral antibiotic Trovan conducted on children living in Kano during a meningitis epidemic in 1996. In Kano State Court there is one civil suit and one criminal case and in the Federal High Court there is one civil suit and one criminal case. Since 2006, Petrosinelli and Adams have been briefing the Mission on the status of the cases.
Settlement Reached
------------------
¶3. (C) Petrosinelli reported that Pfizer had tentatively reached “an agreement in principle” on the Kano AG’s settlement offer of $75 million. Adams explained that the parties agreed that the $75 million would be broken down as follows - a $10 million payment for legal fees; $30 million to the Kano State government; and $35 million to participants and families. Petrosinelli noted, that Pfizer has worked closely with former Nigerian Head of State Yakubu Gowon and that he has played a positive mediation role with Kano State and the federal government. Petrosinelli said Gowon also spoke with Kano State Governor Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, who directed the Kano AG to reduce the settlement demand from $150 million to $75 million. Adams reported that Gowon met with President Yar’Adua and convinced him to drop the two federal high court cases against Pfizer. (Comment: In 1966 Gowon became the head of state following a military coup that deposed Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi who had come to power via an earlier military coup. He was head of state from 1966 to 1975. He now plays an elder statesman role in Nigerian politics. End Comment.)
More Discussions Needed
-----------------------
¶4. (C) According to Adams, details need to be worked out on the mechanism for payments to the Kano State government and participants because Pfizer is unwilling to give a lump sum payment. Pfizer is concerned with transparency issues and is pushing for a $35 million trust fund for the participants to be administered by a neutral third party and the remaining $30 million to be used for improving health care in Kano state. Pfizer underscored that the Nigerian representatives were pushing for lump sum checks and Pfizer will not agree to that. Pfizer is considering rebuilding Kano’s Infectious Disease Hospital where the trial was conducted and working with health care nongovernmental organizations. Adams suggested that the trust fund for participants be administered by a neutral third party because he expects “additional” participants to come forward after they hear about the settlement. The Ambassador suggested Pfizer work with NGOs already working in Kano State and for Pfizer to consider working with local NGO implementing partners that the USG has used because of their transparency record.
ABUJA 00000671 002 OF 002
EconDep provided Pfizer a copy of the U.S.-Nigeria Framework for Partnership document as a guide for existing projects and partners in Kano. Petrosinelli explained that the next step was a meeting at a neutral location between high-level Pfizer officials and the Nigerian side to work out final details and conclude the settlement.
Pfizer Exposes Attorney General
-------------------------------
¶5. (C) In follow up to the April 2 meeting, EconDep met with Pfizer Country Manager Enrico Liggeri in Lagos on April 9. (Note: Liggeri has years of experience in Nigeria because his family operated a business in Lagos from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. He spent most of his childhood in Lagos. End Note.) Liggeri said Pfizer was not happy settling the case, but had come to the conclusion that the $75 million figure was reasonable because the suits had been ongoing for many years costing Pfizer more than $15 million a year in legal and investigative fees. According to Liggeri, Pfizer had hired investigators to uncover corruption links to Federal Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa to expose him and put pressure on him to drop the federal cases. He said Pfizer’s investigators were passing this information to local media, XXXXXXXXXXXX. A series of damaging articles detailing Aondoakaa’s “alleged” corruption ties were published in February and March. Liggeri contended that Pfizer had much more damaging information on Aondoakaa and that Aondoakaa’s cronies were pressuring him to drop the suit for fear of further negative articles.
¶6. (C) Liggeri commented that the lawsuits were wholly political in nature because the NGO Doctors Without Borders administered Trovan to other children during the 1996 meningitis epidemic and the Nigerian government has taken no action. He underscored that the suit has had a “chilling effect” on international pharmaceutical companies because companies are no longer willing to conduct clinical testing in Nigeria. Liggeri opined that when another outbreak occurs no company will come to Nigeria’s aid.
¶7. (C) Comment: Pfizer’s image in Nigeria has been damaged due to this ongoing case. Pfizer’s management considers Nigeria a major growth market for its products and having this case behind it will help in efforts to rebuild its image here. Final discussions on the $30 million and $35 million are likely to be tricky because the Nigerian side wants to control who gets the money, not Pfizer. The U.S. Mission will continue to advocate for transparency in settling the case and also note to GON authorities that Pfizer must abide by the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and cannot simple hand over large sums of money to state and local officials. Petrosinelli and Adams will get back to the Mission on what further assistance may be needed. End Comment.
¶8. (U) This cable was coordinated with ConGen Lagos. SANDERS
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Satanic Drug Lords: pharmaceuticals are the most profitable sector in the world
HiddenMysteries
Sunday, January 02 2011 @ 04:40 PM CST
Satanic Drug Lords
Thursday, December 23 2010 @ 02:24 AM CST
Contributed by: HiddenMysteries Owner
Views: 42
Health15 Dirty Big Pharma Tricks That Rip You Off and Risk Your Health for Profit
Even during a recession, pharma is still the nation's third most profitable sector. Here are some of the dirty tricks it employs to stay on top.
By Martha Rosenberg
Even during a two-year recession with people losing their homes and jobs, pharma is still the nation's third most profitable sector. How does it do that? In part by cheating the government, misrepresenting science, bribing doctors, patients and pharmacies, and squeezing the FDA. Other than that, the industry plays completely fair. Pharma has often been criticized for lack of creativity in developing new drugs. But these dirty tricks show its creativity is alive and well when it comes to putting the public at risk just to turn a profit.
1. Astroturf Patients?
Pharma promotes fake patient advocacy groups to lobby for its interests.
These front groups often push the FDA to approve an expensive drug that has acceptable, cheaper alternatives. Or, they'll try to prevent Medicaid from switching to the less pricey drug. One of the largest faux groups, the "grassroots" National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), was investigated by Sen. Charles Grassley for undisclosed pharma links. He found the 10 top NAMI state chapters received $3.84 million from pharma in less than five years, the biggest largesse from Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
How else can you tell an astroturf group? Their Web sites look just like the pharma companies that fund them.
2. Cheating the Government
Pharma is now a top defrauder of the federal government. “Desperate to maintain their high margin of profit in the face of a dwindling number of important new drugs,” pharma illegally promotes unapproved uses of drugs and deliberately overcharges Medicare and Medicaid, says Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. Pharmaceutical companies have been hit with $14.8 billion in wrongdoing settlements in the last five years. But that's still cheaper for Big Pharma than going about things the old-fashioned, legal way. So the fraud continues.
3. Trials and Fibulations
Presiding over clinical trials can make a doctor thousands per patient. But they wouldn't compromise patient safety just to make a buck, would they? Medical College of Georgia psychiatrist Richard Borison and his colleague Bruce Diamond did 13 years ago when they tested Zyprexa, Risperdal and 20 other drugs and ended up in jail. So did Baystate Medical Center's Scott Reuben, who went to prison earlier this year for fraudulent Celebrex, Neurontin and Lyrica trials. And a Tucson facility testing asthma drugs Symbicort, Advair and Singulair doctored data and risked patients' health to net as much as $10,000 per patient, according to a whistleblower and government and court documents. How many other drugs were tested for such fiscal outcomes? Not counting recalled ones, of course.
4. More Trials and Fibulations
Even without fraud, pharma-sponsored studies can deceive. Trials that only determine that a drug is "not worse" than another one or impute safety before real data are available -- as in the case of Vioxx and Avandia's threat of heart attacks -- can skew results. And some research is not meant to be accurate to begin with. The Johnson & Johnson Center for Pediatric Psychopathology Research at Massachusetts General Hospital was founded to "move forward the commercial goals of J.& J." according to unsealed court documents. Its head, Harvard's Joseph Biederman, promised J.& J. a proposed drug trial "will support the safety and effectiveness of risperidone [Risperdal] in this age group," before it was ever conducted. Why leave things up to science?
5. Overseas Adventurism
As pharma increasingly eyes poorer countries for new markets and cheaper manufacturing it also eyes them for cheaper clinical trials. In 1996, 11 Nigerian children died in trials testing Pfizer's not-yet-approved antibiotic Trovan. While Pfizer paid the Nigerian government and state of Kano millions in a settlement, documents released by Wikileaks show that Pfizer tried to extort Nigeria's former attorney general to drop the lawsuits. Trovan was withdrawn from U.S. markets in 2001 for liver toxicity, though "safety signals" may have appeared sooner.
6. Clueless Institutional Review Boards
Institutional review boards, charged with overseeing clinical trials, should catch the unsafe drugs and shady trials. But a Congress and General Accountability Office sting conducted last year on a Colorado review board raises serious doubts. When asked to oversee a study of Adhesiabloc, a product designed to reduce scar tissue after surgery, Coast Independent Review Board said...when do we start? Even though the product did not exist -- nor did its developer or lead researcher!
7. 'Previous Government Experience Desirable'
In the fight against medical fraud, the Justice Department is beginning to file criminal, not just civil, charges against pharma. More employees also are turning whistleblower thanks to provisions that entitle whistleblowers to 15 and even 30 percent of fraud settlements, in some cases. But the other side has a big advantage. As long as politicians like former Louisiana Rep. Billy Tauzin, who left government to head the industry trade group PhRMA, and former CDC director Julie Gerberding, now head of Merck vaccines, are willing to commit a career's worth of knowledge, judgment and relationships to sell product, the government is fighting itself.
8. Double Dealing at the Pharmacy
The best thing that ever happened to pharma (after direct-to-consumer advertising) is Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). Their job is to negotiate the best drugs for their clients, which are heath and pension plans. But they seem far more adept at taking money to push pharma’s top branded drugs, regardless of the cost.
Recently CVS' pharmacy benefit manager, AdvancePCS, sent letters to doctors extolling the benefits of the expensive drug Zyprexa on behalf of drug giant Eli Lilly. Had a generic drug been prescribed over Zyprexa, savings would have been huge.
9. FDA Foreplay
A sneaky way pharma tries to get FDA to approve a drug -- even when the science isn’t there -- is to float the drug to the public. That's where directed marketing comes in. When “patients” (these are often astroturf groups), really want a drug approved, it puts huge pressure on the FDA to be sensitive to the public’s wishes. This tactic famously flopped for Boehringer-Ingelheim this year when it tried to sell a medication for "hypoactive sexual desire disorder" (HSDD) in women (first it had to sell the disease itself). Even though BI debuted its pink Viagra at a medical conference last year and rolled out its elaborate "Sex Brain Body: Make the Connection" Web site with TV personality Lisa Rinna soon after, FDA said no. Seems even though Boehringer-Ingelheim was effective in "raising awareness" about female sexual dysfunction, something else wasn't effective: the drug. And when it came to foreplay, the FDA had a headache.
10. Pharma Service Announcements
Public service announcements are messages for your own good, like, "Do You Know the Seven Warning Signs of Cancer?" But a lot of the awareness messages and warning signs you hear now are not from the government or medical groups, but pharma.
“Voices of Meningitis” ads on mom sites and online TV, for example, look like they are raising awareness of meningitis, but they were actually funded by maker Sanofi Pasteur, which makes a meningitis vaccine.
"Unbranded" advertising appears to have legit origins, like the National Association of School Nurses, which sponsors the Sanofi Pasteur’s meningitis ads. But when TV, radio and web messages push "awareness" of diseases like ADHD, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), restless legs syndrome (RLS) or excessive sleepiness (ES), be suspicious. Real diseases aren't given initials for quick recall and easy reference. Nor do they come with snappy self-quizzes and pretty patient models. Unbranded messages also pimp the PSA (public service announcement) money that media outlets have for actual public issues.
11. National 'Interests' of Health
The National Institutes of Health are supposed to fund research for the public health with the public's tax dollars. But recently, a researcher who was stripped of his own NIH grant because of his huge financial links to pharma, is ruling on other researchers' grants on NIH committees, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education. The researcher, psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff, was also allowed to keep NIH funds when he moved to the University of Miami after being disqualified from them at Emory University. Clearly, when it comes to conflicts of interest at the top of level of government research, the fox is guarding the henhouse (or pork house).
12. Big Pharma Sends Schools Doctors
Continuing Medical Education (CME) are courses that doctors are required to take to keep their state licenses and stay up-to-date with current practice and treatment guidelines. But many are created by pharma, which covers the cost of the course for the doctor in exchange for unvarnished sales pitches. Worse, many are embarrassingly dumbed down.
A recent "course" offered by Medscape was titled "Quadrivalent HPV Vaccine May Be Effective in Women 24 to 45 Years Old." Participants were told that after taking the course, they would be able to "specify the currently recommended age range" for the vaccine (especially if they could read the title!). Another course manipulates participants to "lobby your legislators" for pharma-related Medicare funding. Congress recently investigated the billion-dollar continuing education industry for illegal marketing -- too bad Congress couldn’t investigate for stupidity.
13. Ghostwriting
Ghostwriting -- papers written by medical marketing writers, with doctors only posing as the authors -- was rampant until 2008 Congressional investigations. But even though it's now prohibited, few journals have retracted ghostwritten articles that sold Vioxx, Fen Phen, Prempro and probably Avandia. Asked about the papers ghostwritten "by" Lila Nachtigall, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Deborah Bohren, vice president for public affairs at New York University's Langone Medical Center said, "If we had received a complaint, we would have investigated."
A Congressional investigation doesn't qualify as a complaint?
14. Crooked Books and Slanted Messages
Pharma is often accused of ghostwriting articles that end up in medical journals under doctors' names who had nothing to do with the writing or research. But this month an entire textbook was accused of being funded and approved by pharma. The 1999 textbook, written to help primary care doctors diagnose psychiatric conditions, was funded entirely by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) -- which makes pills for... psychiatric conditions! Nor were its authors, two prominent psychiatrists, strangers to GSK. Alan Schatzberg is on GSK's speakers bureau and Charles Nemeroff was investigated by Congress for undeclared GSK income. Did the authors write the book themselves or was it ghostwritten by pharma or its marketing company? Does it matter?
15. May I Take Your Order?
Have you ever waited in a doctor's office with a 102-degree fever, only to have pharma reps swinging Vytorin totes see the doctor first, just because they brought free samples or lunch and are dressed for a music video (pharma tends to employ attractive people to hawk their wares)? Until Congressional investigations brought about the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, some doctors in medical centers say they never paid for a meal. Nor did pharma largesse end there. One doctor told AlterNet her entire group was jetted to a Caribbean island courtesy of her Paxil rep. Even medical students were schmoozed until the 62,000-member American Medical Student Association (AMSA) sought to end the pharma practice of gifts and free meals. Now pharma must report what it spends on doctors.
Martha Rosenberg frequently writes about the impact of the pharmaceutical, food and gun industries on public health. Her work has appeared in the Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune and other outlets
Sunday, January 02 2011 @ 04:40 PM CST
Satanic Drug Lords
Thursday, December 23 2010 @ 02:24 AM CST
Contributed by: HiddenMysteries Owner
Views: 42
Health15 Dirty Big Pharma Tricks That Rip You Off and Risk Your Health for Profit
Even during a recession, pharma is still the nation's third most profitable sector. Here are some of the dirty tricks it employs to stay on top.
By Martha Rosenberg
Even during a two-year recession with people losing their homes and jobs, pharma is still the nation's third most profitable sector. How does it do that? In part by cheating the government, misrepresenting science, bribing doctors, patients and pharmacies, and squeezing the FDA. Other than that, the industry plays completely fair. Pharma has often been criticized for lack of creativity in developing new drugs. But these dirty tricks show its creativity is alive and well when it comes to putting the public at risk just to turn a profit.
1. Astroturf Patients?
Pharma promotes fake patient advocacy groups to lobby for its interests.
These front groups often push the FDA to approve an expensive drug that has acceptable, cheaper alternatives. Or, they'll try to prevent Medicaid from switching to the less pricey drug. One of the largest faux groups, the "grassroots" National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), was investigated by Sen. Charles Grassley for undisclosed pharma links. He found the 10 top NAMI state chapters received $3.84 million from pharma in less than five years, the biggest largesse from Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
How else can you tell an astroturf group? Their Web sites look just like the pharma companies that fund them.
2. Cheating the Government
Pharma is now a top defrauder of the federal government. “Desperate to maintain their high margin of profit in the face of a dwindling number of important new drugs,” pharma illegally promotes unapproved uses of drugs and deliberately overcharges Medicare and Medicaid, says Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. Pharmaceutical companies have been hit with $14.8 billion in wrongdoing settlements in the last five years. But that's still cheaper for Big Pharma than going about things the old-fashioned, legal way. So the fraud continues.
3. Trials and Fibulations
Presiding over clinical trials can make a doctor thousands per patient. But they wouldn't compromise patient safety just to make a buck, would they? Medical College of Georgia psychiatrist Richard Borison and his colleague Bruce Diamond did 13 years ago when they tested Zyprexa, Risperdal and 20 other drugs and ended up in jail. So did Baystate Medical Center's Scott Reuben, who went to prison earlier this year for fraudulent Celebrex, Neurontin and Lyrica trials. And a Tucson facility testing asthma drugs Symbicort, Advair and Singulair doctored data and risked patients' health to net as much as $10,000 per patient, according to a whistleblower and government and court documents. How many other drugs were tested for such fiscal outcomes? Not counting recalled ones, of course.
4. More Trials and Fibulations
Even without fraud, pharma-sponsored studies can deceive. Trials that only determine that a drug is "not worse" than another one or impute safety before real data are available -- as in the case of Vioxx and Avandia's threat of heart attacks -- can skew results. And some research is not meant to be accurate to begin with. The Johnson & Johnson Center for Pediatric Psychopathology Research at Massachusetts General Hospital was founded to "move forward the commercial goals of J.& J." according to unsealed court documents. Its head, Harvard's Joseph Biederman, promised J.& J. a proposed drug trial "will support the safety and effectiveness of risperidone [Risperdal] in this age group," before it was ever conducted. Why leave things up to science?
5. Overseas Adventurism
As pharma increasingly eyes poorer countries for new markets and cheaper manufacturing it also eyes them for cheaper clinical trials. In 1996, 11 Nigerian children died in trials testing Pfizer's not-yet-approved antibiotic Trovan. While Pfizer paid the Nigerian government and state of Kano millions in a settlement, documents released by Wikileaks show that Pfizer tried to extort Nigeria's former attorney general to drop the lawsuits. Trovan was withdrawn from U.S. markets in 2001 for liver toxicity, though "safety signals" may have appeared sooner.
6. Clueless Institutional Review Boards
Institutional review boards, charged with overseeing clinical trials, should catch the unsafe drugs and shady trials. But a Congress and General Accountability Office sting conducted last year on a Colorado review board raises serious doubts. When asked to oversee a study of Adhesiabloc, a product designed to reduce scar tissue after surgery, Coast Independent Review Board said...when do we start? Even though the product did not exist -- nor did its developer or lead researcher!
7. 'Previous Government Experience Desirable'
In the fight against medical fraud, the Justice Department is beginning to file criminal, not just civil, charges against pharma. More employees also are turning whistleblower thanks to provisions that entitle whistleblowers to 15 and even 30 percent of fraud settlements, in some cases. But the other side has a big advantage. As long as politicians like former Louisiana Rep. Billy Tauzin, who left government to head the industry trade group PhRMA, and former CDC director Julie Gerberding, now head of Merck vaccines, are willing to commit a career's worth of knowledge, judgment and relationships to sell product, the government is fighting itself.
8. Double Dealing at the Pharmacy
The best thing that ever happened to pharma (after direct-to-consumer advertising) is Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). Their job is to negotiate the best drugs for their clients, which are heath and pension plans. But they seem far more adept at taking money to push pharma’s top branded drugs, regardless of the cost.
Recently CVS' pharmacy benefit manager, AdvancePCS, sent letters to doctors extolling the benefits of the expensive drug Zyprexa on behalf of drug giant Eli Lilly. Had a generic drug been prescribed over Zyprexa, savings would have been huge.
9. FDA Foreplay
A sneaky way pharma tries to get FDA to approve a drug -- even when the science isn’t there -- is to float the drug to the public. That's where directed marketing comes in. When “patients” (these are often astroturf groups), really want a drug approved, it puts huge pressure on the FDA to be sensitive to the public’s wishes. This tactic famously flopped for Boehringer-Ingelheim this year when it tried to sell a medication for "hypoactive sexual desire disorder" (HSDD) in women (first it had to sell the disease itself). Even though BI debuted its pink Viagra at a medical conference last year and rolled out its elaborate "Sex Brain Body: Make the Connection" Web site with TV personality Lisa Rinna soon after, FDA said no. Seems even though Boehringer-Ingelheim was effective in "raising awareness" about female sexual dysfunction, something else wasn't effective: the drug. And when it came to foreplay, the FDA had a headache.
10. Pharma Service Announcements
Public service announcements are messages for your own good, like, "Do You Know the Seven Warning Signs of Cancer?" But a lot of the awareness messages and warning signs you hear now are not from the government or medical groups, but pharma.
“Voices of Meningitis” ads on mom sites and online TV, for example, look like they are raising awareness of meningitis, but they were actually funded by maker Sanofi Pasteur, which makes a meningitis vaccine.
"Unbranded" advertising appears to have legit origins, like the National Association of School Nurses, which sponsors the Sanofi Pasteur’s meningitis ads. But when TV, radio and web messages push "awareness" of diseases like ADHD, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), restless legs syndrome (RLS) or excessive sleepiness (ES), be suspicious. Real diseases aren't given initials for quick recall and easy reference. Nor do they come with snappy self-quizzes and pretty patient models. Unbranded messages also pimp the PSA (public service announcement) money that media outlets have for actual public issues.
11. National 'Interests' of Health
The National Institutes of Health are supposed to fund research for the public health with the public's tax dollars. But recently, a researcher who was stripped of his own NIH grant because of his huge financial links to pharma, is ruling on other researchers' grants on NIH committees, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education. The researcher, psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff, was also allowed to keep NIH funds when he moved to the University of Miami after being disqualified from them at Emory University. Clearly, when it comes to conflicts of interest at the top of level of government research, the fox is guarding the henhouse (or pork house).
12. Big Pharma Sends Schools Doctors
Continuing Medical Education (CME) are courses that doctors are required to take to keep their state licenses and stay up-to-date with current practice and treatment guidelines. But many are created by pharma, which covers the cost of the course for the doctor in exchange for unvarnished sales pitches. Worse, many are embarrassingly dumbed down.
A recent "course" offered by Medscape was titled "Quadrivalent HPV Vaccine May Be Effective in Women 24 to 45 Years Old." Participants were told that after taking the course, they would be able to "specify the currently recommended age range" for the vaccine (especially if they could read the title!). Another course manipulates participants to "lobby your legislators" for pharma-related Medicare funding. Congress recently investigated the billion-dollar continuing education industry for illegal marketing -- too bad Congress couldn’t investigate for stupidity.
13. Ghostwriting
Ghostwriting -- papers written by medical marketing writers, with doctors only posing as the authors -- was rampant until 2008 Congressional investigations. But even though it's now prohibited, few journals have retracted ghostwritten articles that sold Vioxx, Fen Phen, Prempro and probably Avandia. Asked about the papers ghostwritten "by" Lila Nachtigall, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Deborah Bohren, vice president for public affairs at New York University's Langone Medical Center said, "If we had received a complaint, we would have investigated."
A Congressional investigation doesn't qualify as a complaint?
14. Crooked Books and Slanted Messages
Pharma is often accused of ghostwriting articles that end up in medical journals under doctors' names who had nothing to do with the writing or research. But this month an entire textbook was accused of being funded and approved by pharma. The 1999 textbook, written to help primary care doctors diagnose psychiatric conditions, was funded entirely by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) -- which makes pills for... psychiatric conditions! Nor were its authors, two prominent psychiatrists, strangers to GSK. Alan Schatzberg is on GSK's speakers bureau and Charles Nemeroff was investigated by Congress for undeclared GSK income. Did the authors write the book themselves or was it ghostwritten by pharma or its marketing company? Does it matter?
15. May I Take Your Order?
Have you ever waited in a doctor's office with a 102-degree fever, only to have pharma reps swinging Vytorin totes see the doctor first, just because they brought free samples or lunch and are dressed for a music video (pharma tends to employ attractive people to hawk their wares)? Until Congressional investigations brought about the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, some doctors in medical centers say they never paid for a meal. Nor did pharma largesse end there. One doctor told AlterNet her entire group was jetted to a Caribbean island courtesy of her Paxil rep. Even medical students were schmoozed until the 62,000-member American Medical Student Association (AMSA) sought to end the pharma practice of gifts and free meals. Now pharma must report what it spends on doctors.
Martha Rosenberg frequently writes about the impact of the pharmaceutical, food and gun industries on public health. Her work has appeared in the Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune and other outlets
Trovan issue remained mired in controversy
Despite an agreement between the Kano State government and Pfizer Inc that the latter should pay compensation to victims of the 1996 clinical trial of its drug, Trovan, the issue has remained mired in controversy with the pharmaceutical manufacturing...
Pfizer Inc a leading pharmaceutical company in the world conducted a clinical trial on 200 patients in Kano State. About 110 of the participants took Ceftriaxone; prided as the gold standard medicine for the treatment of meningitis, while 90 others were treated with Trovan.
Of the 200 participants, eleven persons died; six from those who took Ceftriazone and five from those who were administered with Trovan. Many others survived with some degree of incapacitation
The incident became a subject of litigation as the Kano State government dragged the company to court. In July 2009, both parties reached an agreement on how to settle the matter.
Pfizer Inc a leading pharmaceutical company in the world conducted a clinical trial on 200 patients in Kano State. About 110 of the participants took Ceftriaxone; prided as the gold standard medicine for the treatment of meningitis, while 90 others were treated with Trovan.
Of the 200 participants, eleven persons died; six from those who took Ceftriazone and five from those who were administered with Trovan. Many others survived with some degree of incapacitation
The incident became a subject of litigation as the Kano State government dragged the company to court. In July 2009, both parties reached an agreement on how to settle the matter.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Pfizer’s secret deal
Monday, November 29, 2010 23:04
Pfizer’s secret deal
Last week, the people of Kano State witnessed the foundation-laying ceremony of a multi-million dollar hospital in the ancient city. The facility is a fallout of the deal between the state government and the American drug manufacturer, Pfizer in which the government withdrew criminal and civil charges against the company for conducting clinical tests that resulted in the death of some children in the state.
In the wake of the failed tests, the federal government had filed a separate suit against Pfizer but the case was quietly dropped after a deal was brokered by the then Attorney General of the federation and minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa. . Yet, no official in our government seems to know the details of this agreement. Mr. Aondoakaa who was the arrow head of that transaction denies any knowledge of the money collected from Pfizer, claiming that counsels to the federal government are more acquainted with the case. However, both the counsels and officials of the pharmaceutical giant have refused to disclose the terms of the deal saying the settlement was “covered by a standard confidentiality clause and thus may not be disclosed”.
Back
Any deal brokered by Michael Aondoakaa is null and void. They have sold Nigerians to the butchers. Individually, each person can sue Pfizer or in America, that way they get their entitlemnet.
Posted by Okwuchukwu Ezeanyika on Nov 28 2010
Yes, the settlement could be covered by a standard confidentiality clause and may not be disclosed. But it behoves on the Federal Government of Nigeria to tell the public what it did with the monetary aspect of the settlement. It is not ethical for the government to keep mute under the guise of confidentiality clause in the agreement. Nigerians deserve decent treatment than that unnerving silence.
Posted by Akinima on Nov 28 2010
Another Aondoakaa deal? Is this the same man who brokered the "Hali-bottom" deal? Did anyone say this man is a trained lawyer charged with the responsibility to protect the interests of the nation at all times, fight for justice, equity and fairness for the nation and its people? How can it be said that Aondoakaa protected the interest of Nigerians or Kano people in both Halliburton and Pfizer deals if the people or their rulers does not know the basis of the so called deals. How will the people be in a position to evaluate whether or not the terms of these deals are in their best interests? How would Pfizer be held accountable in the event of a breach of the agreed terms if the people are not aware of Pfizer's obligations under the agreement. Aondoakaa now seem to seek refuge in confidentiality rule for not disclosing the terms of both agreements. It is terminally very sad that untrained politician and callous lawyers who disregard ethical standards are selling us cheap in the mix to multi-nationals. Time has come for the people to rise up and say no to the Aondoakaas and other ruthless politicians and leaders who seek self interests. God will pay them back for their evil deeds
Posted by KC on Nov 28 2010
Aondoaka again, this charge and bail lawyer at it again! God save Nigeria.
Posted by ochule victor from sagbama bayelsa state on Nov 28 2010
Its rather sad dat pfizer & the fed govt of nigeria are playin gymnicks wit the life of ordinary nigerians the'v vowed 2 safe.even though medical facilities are necessary,i urge the indigenes of kano 2 rise in protest through the relevant agencies & communal effort until the truth is unveiled.
Posted by Nnaendi Nwokoma on Nov 28 2010
This is one situation that must be thoroughly dissected before Michael Aondoakaa washes his hands and says that he does not know. He was in charge and so the "buck" stops with him. He can run but he cannot hide. Pfizer may have "settled" all the people they came in contact with but we need to know what Nigeria's "settlment" was and how this was determined. I will be shocked if the truth on this story ever get to see the light of day but I am hopeful for Nigeria...
Posted by Dewey on Nov 28 2010
Hey You NEXT, urbanised intellectuals, do you know that 80% of the population does not leave in Lagos or Abuja, the only cities where NEXT newspaper can be found!? So, either you improve the diffusion of the nexspaper in the country or you publish full paper on Internet. But this....... is unfair!
Posted by Ode omi on Nov 28 2010
Haahaaa, confidentiality agreement does not apply to settlement between government and private entity. Every Nigeria citizen is a party to the agreement and deserve to know what is in the agreement. The newspaper ought to bound together and sue on behalf of the public
• Aondoakaa’s secret deal with Pfizer
Pfizer’s secret deal
Last week, the people of Kano State witnessed the foundation-laying ceremony of a multi-million dollar hospital in the ancient city. The facility is a fallout of the deal between the state government and the American drug manufacturer, Pfizer in which the government withdrew criminal and civil charges against the company for conducting clinical tests that resulted in the death of some children in the state.
In the wake of the failed tests, the federal government had filed a separate suit against Pfizer but the case was quietly dropped after a deal was brokered by the then Attorney General of the federation and minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa. . Yet, no official in our government seems to know the details of this agreement. Mr. Aondoakaa who was the arrow head of that transaction denies any knowledge of the money collected from Pfizer, claiming that counsels to the federal government are more acquainted with the case. However, both the counsels and officials of the pharmaceutical giant have refused to disclose the terms of the deal saying the settlement was “covered by a standard confidentiality clause and thus may not be disclosed”.
Back
Any deal brokered by Michael Aondoakaa is null and void. They have sold Nigerians to the butchers. Individually, each person can sue Pfizer or in America, that way they get their entitlemnet.
Posted by Okwuchukwu Ezeanyika on Nov 28 2010
Yes, the settlement could be covered by a standard confidentiality clause and may not be disclosed. But it behoves on the Federal Government of Nigeria to tell the public what it did with the monetary aspect of the settlement. It is not ethical for the government to keep mute under the guise of confidentiality clause in the agreement. Nigerians deserve decent treatment than that unnerving silence.
Posted by Akinima on Nov 28 2010
Another Aondoakaa deal? Is this the same man who brokered the "Hali-bottom" deal? Did anyone say this man is a trained lawyer charged with the responsibility to protect the interests of the nation at all times, fight for justice, equity and fairness for the nation and its people? How can it be said that Aondoakaa protected the interest of Nigerians or Kano people in both Halliburton and Pfizer deals if the people or their rulers does not know the basis of the so called deals. How will the people be in a position to evaluate whether or not the terms of these deals are in their best interests? How would Pfizer be held accountable in the event of a breach of the agreed terms if the people are not aware of Pfizer's obligations under the agreement. Aondoakaa now seem to seek refuge in confidentiality rule for not disclosing the terms of both agreements. It is terminally very sad that untrained politician and callous lawyers who disregard ethical standards are selling us cheap in the mix to multi-nationals. Time has come for the people to rise up and say no to the Aondoakaas and other ruthless politicians and leaders who seek self interests. God will pay them back for their evil deeds
Posted by KC on Nov 28 2010
Aondoaka again, this charge and bail lawyer at it again! God save Nigeria.
Posted by ochule victor from sagbama bayelsa state on Nov 28 2010
Its rather sad dat pfizer & the fed govt of nigeria are playin gymnicks wit the life of ordinary nigerians the'v vowed 2 safe.even though medical facilities are necessary,i urge the indigenes of kano 2 rise in protest through the relevant agencies & communal effort until the truth is unveiled.
Posted by Nnaendi Nwokoma on Nov 28 2010
This is one situation that must be thoroughly dissected before Michael Aondoakaa washes his hands and says that he does not know. He was in charge and so the "buck" stops with him. He can run but he cannot hide. Pfizer may have "settled" all the people they came in contact with but we need to know what Nigeria's "settlment" was and how this was determined. I will be shocked if the truth on this story ever get to see the light of day but I am hopeful for Nigeria...
Posted by Dewey on Nov 28 2010
Hey You NEXT, urbanised intellectuals, do you know that 80% of the population does not leave in Lagos or Abuja, the only cities where NEXT newspaper can be found!? So, either you improve the diffusion of the nexspaper in the country or you publish full paper on Internet. But this....... is unfair!
Posted by Ode omi on Nov 28 2010
Haahaaa, confidentiality agreement does not apply to settlement between government and private entity. Every Nigeria citizen is a party to the agreement and deserve to know what is in the agreement. The newspaper ought to bound together and sue on behalf of the public
• Aondoakaa’s secret deal with Pfizer
PFIZER : VICTIMS ABANDONED
Monday, November 29, 2010 23:01
Aondoakaa’s secret deal with Pfizer
By Musikilu Mojeed
The terms of the agreement reached between the Federal Government and pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer that led to the withdrawal of federal charges against the pharmaceutical giant over the deadly 1996 Trovan paediatric clinical trial in Kano remain unknown because of the nature of deal brokered by former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mike Aondoakaa.
Last week, the Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, broke ground for the construction of a multimillion dollar hospital to be built by Pfizer as part of the agreement between the state government and the company. But nothing has been heard about the federal government deal.
Others involved in the deal, which saw Mr. Aondoakaa withdrawing the $6 billion suit the Federal Government instituted against Pfizer, were lawyers Maryam Uwais, Tunde Irukera and Yemi Osibajo, a former Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice.
Ms Uwais, Mr. Osibajo and Mr. Irukera represented the government in the suit and thus negotiated the confidential settlement agreement with Pfizer on behalf of Mr. Aondoakaa and the Federal Ministry of Justice.
The withdrawal of the case, as well as the terms of settlement, is a highly guarded secret by the parties involved in the negotiation.
The amount of money that changed hands in the deal and the terms of the agreement are however not clear, as all parties to the deal insisted that the settlement was covered by a confidentiality clause.
They declined to disclose details of the agreement in spite of repeated prodding by NEXT that the Kano Pfizer case is of great public concern and that Nigerians, and indeed the world, need to know every detail of its resolution.
Genesis of the dispute
The Federal Government and the Kano State Government had filed two separate cases against Pfizer over the controversial drug trial. The company had tested the antibiotic Trovan on 200 sick children during a meningitis outbreak in 1996. Eleven children reportedly died and others were blinded, paralysed or brain-damaged.
In the cases, both filed in May 2007, the federal government sought more than $6 billion in damages and the Kano State government wanted $2.075 billion in damages for, among other things, the costs incurred to provide treatment, compensation and support for the alleged victims and their families; the costs of unrelated health initiatives that failed, allegedly due to societal misgivings attributable to the Trovan study; and general damages.
On July 30, 2009, Pfizer and Kano entered into a well-publicised $75million settlement agreement, pursuant to which Kano State agreed to dismiss the civil and criminal actions.
Pfizer in turn agreed to (i) establish a healthcare/meningitis fund from which participants in the 1996 study can receive financial support in an aggregate amount up to $35 million; (ii) fund, in the amount of $30 million within a two-year period, various healthcare initiatives chosen by the Kano State government for the benefit of the people of Kano State; and (iii) reimburse Kano State for $10 million in legal costs incurred in connection with the litigation.
Silent federal government
But the Federal Ministry of Justice, under Mr. Aondoakaa, did not announce at anytime that it had withdrawn the $6 billion case against the American pharmaceutical company.
Some Nigerians thus believed that the case was still in court.
However, investigations by NEXT revealed that the former minister and the lawyers hammered out a secret settlement in October 2009 and agreed to keep the deal under wraps.
Shortly afterwards, Pfizer, in a quarterly report on November 5, 2009, informed the United States’ Security and Exchange Commission that the Nigerian Federal Government had discontinued the litigation against it.
The report did not disclose what the terms of settlement are and how much was paid to the Nigerian government.
It only said, “In October 2009, the parties entered into a settlement agreement pursuant to which the Federal Government of Nigeria agreed to dismiss the civil and criminal actions with prejudice. And Pfizer agreed to pay the legal fees and expenses incurred by the Federal Government in connection with the litigation.”
Our investigations indicate that no money was paid to government’s coffers in respect of the settlement, and it is not clear who received the payment made by Pfizer in lieu of “legal fees and expenses incurred by the Federal Government.”
Claims and counter claims
When contacted, Mr. Aondoakaa said it was Ms Uwais and her colleagues who negotiated with Pfizer directly, holding meetings with representatives of the pharmaceutical firm in London and Dubai and later receiving an undisclosed amount from the company.
“I don’t know about this money you are talking about,” Mr. Aondoakaa said on the telephone. “I didn’t touch a kobo. The initial proposal we sent was that Pfizer should do something at the National Hospital but President Yar’Adua said no, that Pfizer money was blood money. So, the lawyers were dealing with Pfizer directly and the matter was still on when I left office.” (A NEXT check proved otherwise: the agreement was reached in October 2009 and Mr. Aondoakaa was Attorney General till his removal on February 10, 2010).
The former minister directed further enquiries on the matter to the incumbent justice minister, Bello Adoke. But Mr. Adoke in turn said Mr. Aondoakaa was better placed to answer questions on the withdrawal of the case and the terms of settlement.
“He (Mr. Aondoakaa) is the person who decided the issues of the case before I came here as the AGF,” Mr. Adoke said. “As for the terms of the settlement ... what I am told is that the case was settled under a non-disclosure legal term.”
Mr. Irukera, one of the government’s lawyers, also debunked Mr. Aondoakaa’s claim that he (the former minister) was not involved in the negotiation, saying the former Attorney General held several meetings with Pfizer in the run-up to the withdrawal of the case.
“As counsel, we did not directly interface with Pfizer in reaching this resolution,” Mr. Irukera said in an interview. “However, we were informed as counsel that the FGN in its discussions with Pfizer agreed that in exchange for dismissing the civil action with prejudice and the criminal charges and executing a non-prosecutorial agreement, Pfizer will reimburse the FGN for its expenses in prosecuting the cases including fees to professionals and out of pocket expenses by the government. We only signed the agreement in support of the FGN’s signature and received our fees directly.”
The lawyer wouldn’t say how much his team received from Pfizer.
Oath of secrecy
The other counsel, Ms. Uwais, declined to respond to specific questions on the matter. “Unfortunately, responding to the thrust of your many questions would breach our confidentiality obligations,” she said in response to an email from NEXT.
Pfizer also insisted that the secrecy of the agreement couldn’t be broken. Marco Winkler, a spokesperson for the company, explained that in the settlement, “the Federal Government agreed to dismiss its civil and criminal actions with prejudice and Pfizer agreed to pay legal fees and expenses incurred by the Federal Government in connection with the litigation”.
Mr. Winkler wouldn’t disclose who received the payment made by his company and how much was involved.
“The specific terms and conditions of the settlement agreement are covered by a standard confidentiality clause and thus may not be disclosed,” he said in an email to NEXT from the New York headquarters of the company.
Our investigations however showed that such discrete resolution of cases have no place in Pfizer’s home country. Around the same time that Mr. Aondoakaa and the lawyers made the deal with the company, the U.S. Department of Justice forced the pharmaceutical giant to cough out $2.3 billion for off-label promotional practices involving four of its drugs (Bextra, Zyvox, Geodon and Lyrica) and allegations certain payments to healthcare professionals involving these and nine other Pfizer drugs.
In addition, in September 2009, the company reached agreements with attorneys general in 42 US states and the District of Columbia to settle state civil consumer protection allegations related to promotional practices concerning Geodon. The states wrested $33 million from the company for the violation. The terms of settlement of those cases are at the disposal of the American public.
Aondoakaa’s secret deal with Pfizer
By Musikilu Mojeed
The terms of the agreement reached between the Federal Government and pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer that led to the withdrawal of federal charges against the pharmaceutical giant over the deadly 1996 Trovan paediatric clinical trial in Kano remain unknown because of the nature of deal brokered by former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mike Aondoakaa.
Last week, the Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, broke ground for the construction of a multimillion dollar hospital to be built by Pfizer as part of the agreement between the state government and the company. But nothing has been heard about the federal government deal.
Others involved in the deal, which saw Mr. Aondoakaa withdrawing the $6 billion suit the Federal Government instituted against Pfizer, were lawyers Maryam Uwais, Tunde Irukera and Yemi Osibajo, a former Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice.
Ms Uwais, Mr. Osibajo and Mr. Irukera represented the government in the suit and thus negotiated the confidential settlement agreement with Pfizer on behalf of Mr. Aondoakaa and the Federal Ministry of Justice.
The withdrawal of the case, as well as the terms of settlement, is a highly guarded secret by the parties involved in the negotiation.
The amount of money that changed hands in the deal and the terms of the agreement are however not clear, as all parties to the deal insisted that the settlement was covered by a confidentiality clause.
They declined to disclose details of the agreement in spite of repeated prodding by NEXT that the Kano Pfizer case is of great public concern and that Nigerians, and indeed the world, need to know every detail of its resolution.
Genesis of the dispute
The Federal Government and the Kano State Government had filed two separate cases against Pfizer over the controversial drug trial. The company had tested the antibiotic Trovan on 200 sick children during a meningitis outbreak in 1996. Eleven children reportedly died and others were blinded, paralysed or brain-damaged.
In the cases, both filed in May 2007, the federal government sought more than $6 billion in damages and the Kano State government wanted $2.075 billion in damages for, among other things, the costs incurred to provide treatment, compensation and support for the alleged victims and their families; the costs of unrelated health initiatives that failed, allegedly due to societal misgivings attributable to the Trovan study; and general damages.
On July 30, 2009, Pfizer and Kano entered into a well-publicised $75million settlement agreement, pursuant to which Kano State agreed to dismiss the civil and criminal actions.
Pfizer in turn agreed to (i) establish a healthcare/meningitis fund from which participants in the 1996 study can receive financial support in an aggregate amount up to $35 million; (ii) fund, in the amount of $30 million within a two-year period, various healthcare initiatives chosen by the Kano State government for the benefit of the people of Kano State; and (iii) reimburse Kano State for $10 million in legal costs incurred in connection with the litigation.
Silent federal government
But the Federal Ministry of Justice, under Mr. Aondoakaa, did not announce at anytime that it had withdrawn the $6 billion case against the American pharmaceutical company.
Some Nigerians thus believed that the case was still in court.
However, investigations by NEXT revealed that the former minister and the lawyers hammered out a secret settlement in October 2009 and agreed to keep the deal under wraps.
Shortly afterwards, Pfizer, in a quarterly report on November 5, 2009, informed the United States’ Security and Exchange Commission that the Nigerian Federal Government had discontinued the litigation against it.
The report did not disclose what the terms of settlement are and how much was paid to the Nigerian government.
It only said, “In October 2009, the parties entered into a settlement agreement pursuant to which the Federal Government of Nigeria agreed to dismiss the civil and criminal actions with prejudice. And Pfizer agreed to pay the legal fees and expenses incurred by the Federal Government in connection with the litigation.”
Our investigations indicate that no money was paid to government’s coffers in respect of the settlement, and it is not clear who received the payment made by Pfizer in lieu of “legal fees and expenses incurred by the Federal Government.”
Claims and counter claims
When contacted, Mr. Aondoakaa said it was Ms Uwais and her colleagues who negotiated with Pfizer directly, holding meetings with representatives of the pharmaceutical firm in London and Dubai and later receiving an undisclosed amount from the company.
“I don’t know about this money you are talking about,” Mr. Aondoakaa said on the telephone. “I didn’t touch a kobo. The initial proposal we sent was that Pfizer should do something at the National Hospital but President Yar’Adua said no, that Pfizer money was blood money. So, the lawyers were dealing with Pfizer directly and the matter was still on when I left office.” (A NEXT check proved otherwise: the agreement was reached in October 2009 and Mr. Aondoakaa was Attorney General till his removal on February 10, 2010).
The former minister directed further enquiries on the matter to the incumbent justice minister, Bello Adoke. But Mr. Adoke in turn said Mr. Aondoakaa was better placed to answer questions on the withdrawal of the case and the terms of settlement.
“He (Mr. Aondoakaa) is the person who decided the issues of the case before I came here as the AGF,” Mr. Adoke said. “As for the terms of the settlement ... what I am told is that the case was settled under a non-disclosure legal term.”
Mr. Irukera, one of the government’s lawyers, also debunked Mr. Aondoakaa’s claim that he (the former minister) was not involved in the negotiation, saying the former Attorney General held several meetings with Pfizer in the run-up to the withdrawal of the case.
“As counsel, we did not directly interface with Pfizer in reaching this resolution,” Mr. Irukera said in an interview. “However, we were informed as counsel that the FGN in its discussions with Pfizer agreed that in exchange for dismissing the civil action with prejudice and the criminal charges and executing a non-prosecutorial agreement, Pfizer will reimburse the FGN for its expenses in prosecuting the cases including fees to professionals and out of pocket expenses by the government. We only signed the agreement in support of the FGN’s signature and received our fees directly.”
The lawyer wouldn’t say how much his team received from Pfizer.
Oath of secrecy
The other counsel, Ms. Uwais, declined to respond to specific questions on the matter. “Unfortunately, responding to the thrust of your many questions would breach our confidentiality obligations,” she said in response to an email from NEXT.
Pfizer also insisted that the secrecy of the agreement couldn’t be broken. Marco Winkler, a spokesperson for the company, explained that in the settlement, “the Federal Government agreed to dismiss its civil and criminal actions with prejudice and Pfizer agreed to pay legal fees and expenses incurred by the Federal Government in connection with the litigation”.
Mr. Winkler wouldn’t disclose who received the payment made by his company and how much was involved.
“The specific terms and conditions of the settlement agreement are covered by a standard confidentiality clause and thus may not be disclosed,” he said in an email to NEXT from the New York headquarters of the company.
Our investigations however showed that such discrete resolution of cases have no place in Pfizer’s home country. Around the same time that Mr. Aondoakaa and the lawyers made the deal with the company, the U.S. Department of Justice forced the pharmaceutical giant to cough out $2.3 billion for off-label promotional practices involving four of its drugs (Bextra, Zyvox, Geodon and Lyrica) and allegations certain payments to healthcare professionals involving these and nine other Pfizer drugs.
In addition, in September 2009, the company reached agreements with attorneys general in 42 US states and the District of Columbia to settle state civil consumer protection allegations related to promotional practices concerning Geodon. The states wrested $33 million from the company for the violation. The terms of settlement of those cases are at the disposal of the American public.
PFIZER VICTIMS ABANDONED
Gone but not settled yet
NEXT editorial
November 29, 2010
The settlement of the Trovan trials case brought by the Nigerian plaintiffs against the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has all the elements of a deal or no deal contest, at least on this side of the Atlantic. In this famous game show where contestants have to choose between a set of 26 identical briefcases holding anything from $.10 to $1million, Nigerians deserve to know the exact contents of the ones collected on their behalf by their "representatives" in the Kano State government.
The settlement of the case brought by the plaintiffs represented something of an achievement for Nigeria in the David and Goliath, Third World versus Multinational giant category if you could ignore the searing tragedy that led to it, both on the side of a rapacious multinational and the dubious tactics of Nigerian officials who signed first and asked questions later.
The real victims were the 30 families whose offspring were killed, maimed and paralysed by the drug Trovan that had never been administered to children. Pfizer hit on its idea to try it out in the midst of a raging meningitis outbreak in Kano in August of 1996 that led to 12,000 deaths in the country. The US Federal Drug Administration approved Trovan in 1998, two years later, for use on adults.
In May of 2006 a confidential report published by the Washington Post found that Pfizer had violated Nigerian and international law in its trials on 200 children in Kano in 1996. This finding led to criminal charges brought against Pfizer by the Federal government in 2007, which sued for $ 6 billion in damages.
But the issue here is not Pfizer, which argued in its defence that it had obtained approval from Nigerian officials to conduct the trial.
The Nigerian government system has been described as a kleptocracy and the handling of the details of the settlement of this Pfizer case look to be following that pattern.
Based on the broad terms of the settlement Pfizer is to pay $30 million disbursed over two years on heath care initiatives chosen by Kano State. Pfizer will pay $10 million towards the Kano State governments legal fees and $30 or $35 million, there is some discrepancy here, will be used to set up a fund for valid claims from eligible victims who were part of the trial. A six-person panel established by Kano State and Pfizer will determine the eligibility of the victims and the level of compensation.
In return Kano State will drop civil and criminal claims against Pfizer. Last year a statement in the Washington Post credited to Babatunde Irukera in who represented Kano State when the settlement was announced in August of 2009 said the Federal government's case against the company was not affected by this settlement But this paper has reported that an agreement brokered by former Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice Michael Aondoakaa has led to the withdrawal of the Federal governments $6 billion suit also. "People and entities can and must be held accountable for the consequences of their conduct," Mr Irukera was quoted as saying.
That same accountability we would say requires the Kano State government to be open and scrupulously detailed as it disburses the funds for the victims and for the healthcare projects, even before we begin to ponder the possible subterranean terms of the agreement brokered on Aondoakaa's behalf by a team of lawyers.
The issue here from the start was justice, on behalf of 200 sick children who were used as fodder for illegal clinical tests, not lawyers and their fees, government officials and secret ‘settlements' or a pharmaceutical giant anxious to ward off any bad publicity.
Full disclosure and transparent monitoring is what justice demands for the souls of the 11 children who died, and the rest who were paralysed or brain damaged by the administration of the experimental drug Trovan.
Back
Posted by Truck Pusher on Nov 29 2010
part of the settlement agreement stated that the contents of the agreement would not be made public...how do i know?...because that is standard judicial fare...
Posted by hC on Nov 29 2010
Truck Pusher forgot to add, "but as usual, nobody asked me". Kleptocracy is a very appropriate adjective.
Posted by Ajegunle on Nov 29 2010
It is not the duty of the government to sue Pfizer, the government should have aided the affected persons in fighting Pfizer. I am sure, each one of them will entitled to about $100m each, plus fines. Then the government can then sue and get money. Like I said before, these victims have been sold to butchers. I smell dollars here, EFCC should probe Kano and Federal Government officials, money has changed hand.
Posted by Louisiana Ibeh on Nov 29 2010
Nothing can be more baffling in the way we nigerians handle issues, especially serious ones that could upgrade our social and political and environmental status internationally. I think we need to make choicest decisions that would not only benefit ourselves but the other close and far. we are one and we need to act as one not necessarily the majority. Justice should prevail and not the "Millions of Dollars".
NEXT editorial
November 29, 2010
The settlement of the Trovan trials case brought by the Nigerian plaintiffs against the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has all the elements of a deal or no deal contest, at least on this side of the Atlantic. In this famous game show where contestants have to choose between a set of 26 identical briefcases holding anything from $.10 to $1million, Nigerians deserve to know the exact contents of the ones collected on their behalf by their "representatives" in the Kano State government.
The settlement of the case brought by the plaintiffs represented something of an achievement for Nigeria in the David and Goliath, Third World versus Multinational giant category if you could ignore the searing tragedy that led to it, both on the side of a rapacious multinational and the dubious tactics of Nigerian officials who signed first and asked questions later.
The real victims were the 30 families whose offspring were killed, maimed and paralysed by the drug Trovan that had never been administered to children. Pfizer hit on its idea to try it out in the midst of a raging meningitis outbreak in Kano in August of 1996 that led to 12,000 deaths in the country. The US Federal Drug Administration approved Trovan in 1998, two years later, for use on adults.
In May of 2006 a confidential report published by the Washington Post found that Pfizer had violated Nigerian and international law in its trials on 200 children in Kano in 1996. This finding led to criminal charges brought against Pfizer by the Federal government in 2007, which sued for $ 6 billion in damages.
But the issue here is not Pfizer, which argued in its defence that it had obtained approval from Nigerian officials to conduct the trial.
The Nigerian government system has been described as a kleptocracy and the handling of the details of the settlement of this Pfizer case look to be following that pattern.
Based on the broad terms of the settlement Pfizer is to pay $30 million disbursed over two years on heath care initiatives chosen by Kano State. Pfizer will pay $10 million towards the Kano State governments legal fees and $30 or $35 million, there is some discrepancy here, will be used to set up a fund for valid claims from eligible victims who were part of the trial. A six-person panel established by Kano State and Pfizer will determine the eligibility of the victims and the level of compensation.
In return Kano State will drop civil and criminal claims against Pfizer. Last year a statement in the Washington Post credited to Babatunde Irukera in who represented Kano State when the settlement was announced in August of 2009 said the Federal government's case against the company was not affected by this settlement But this paper has reported that an agreement brokered by former Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice Michael Aondoakaa has led to the withdrawal of the Federal governments $6 billion suit also. "People and entities can and must be held accountable for the consequences of their conduct," Mr Irukera was quoted as saying.
That same accountability we would say requires the Kano State government to be open and scrupulously detailed as it disburses the funds for the victims and for the healthcare projects, even before we begin to ponder the possible subterranean terms of the agreement brokered on Aondoakaa's behalf by a team of lawyers.
The issue here from the start was justice, on behalf of 200 sick children who were used as fodder for illegal clinical tests, not lawyers and their fees, government officials and secret ‘settlements' or a pharmaceutical giant anxious to ward off any bad publicity.
Full disclosure and transparent monitoring is what justice demands for the souls of the 11 children who died, and the rest who were paralysed or brain damaged by the administration of the experimental drug Trovan.
Back
Posted by Truck Pusher on Nov 29 2010
part of the settlement agreement stated that the contents of the agreement would not be made public...how do i know?...because that is standard judicial fare...
Posted by hC on Nov 29 2010
Truck Pusher forgot to add, "but as usual, nobody asked me". Kleptocracy is a very appropriate adjective.
Posted by Ajegunle on Nov 29 2010
It is not the duty of the government to sue Pfizer, the government should have aided the affected persons in fighting Pfizer. I am sure, each one of them will entitled to about $100m each, plus fines. Then the government can then sue and get money. Like I said before, these victims have been sold to butchers. I smell dollars here, EFCC should probe Kano and Federal Government officials, money has changed hand.
Posted by Louisiana Ibeh on Nov 29 2010
Nothing can be more baffling in the way we nigerians handle issues, especially serious ones that could upgrade our social and political and environmental status internationally. I think we need to make choicest decisions that would not only benefit ourselves but the other close and far. we are one and we need to act as one not necessarily the majority. Justice should prevail and not the "Millions of Dollars".
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Pfizer's Tale
Pfizer Starts Work on $30m Hospital in Kano
Multinational drugs firm, Pfizer Incorporated, has commenced work on the establishment of a $30 million medical facility at Dawakin Dudu, 15 kilometres from the Kano metropolis.
Ibrahim Shekarau, the state Governor, performed the foundation laying ceremony of the medical facility at the occasion. He said that the decision by Pfizer to establish the medical facility was in line with an out of court settlement reached between the state government, victims of the 1996 Trovan drug test and Pfizer incorporated.
Spokesperson for Pfizer, Chris Loder, said the decision to construct the medical facility underlines the commitment of the company towards ensuring the wellbeing of Nigerians. "The construction of a new state of the art medical centre in Kano is proof positive that Pfizer continues to fulfil its commitments to Nigeria and its people," he said. "This event allows the company to further its work on what really matters - improving the healthcare for all Nigerians." The medical facility is to be equipped with a centre for disease control, a public health laboratory, a diagnostic centre, a micro-biological reference laboratory and residence staff quarters.
The Trovan War
Hundreds of people died or took ill in Kano after they were administered by the drugs in a surreptitious test being conducted by the company on the efficacy and effects of the drug. It was later sued by both the state and federal government. The company reached an out-of-court settlement with the two parties.
Recalling how he led a delegation to the negotiation talks with Pfizer in the United Kingdom and America, Mr Shekarau expressed optimism that the medical facility would achieve the desired objective of proper diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases afflicting children in Kano and neighbouring states of Nigeria.
The chairman of the Healthcare Programme Trust, S.A.S Galadanci, said that it is unfortunate that the less privileged ones in the society had faced difficulties accessing treatment when faced with chronic ailments. He explained that the facility would redress the problems associated with the dearth of medical facilities and equipment at various healthcare centres in Kano and neighbouring states by the time it becomes fully operational next year.
Multinational drugs firm, Pfizer Incorporated, has commenced work on the establishment of a $30 million medical facility at Dawakin Dudu, 15 kilometres from the Kano metropolis.
Ibrahim Shekarau, the state Governor, performed the foundation laying ceremony of the medical facility at the occasion. He said that the decision by Pfizer to establish the medical facility was in line with an out of court settlement reached between the state government, victims of the 1996 Trovan drug test and Pfizer incorporated.
Spokesperson for Pfizer, Chris Loder, said the decision to construct the medical facility underlines the commitment of the company towards ensuring the wellbeing of Nigerians. "The construction of a new state of the art medical centre in Kano is proof positive that Pfizer continues to fulfil its commitments to Nigeria and its people," he said. "This event allows the company to further its work on what really matters - improving the healthcare for all Nigerians." The medical facility is to be equipped with a centre for disease control, a public health laboratory, a diagnostic centre, a micro-biological reference laboratory and residence staff quarters.
The Trovan War
Hundreds of people died or took ill in Kano after they were administered by the drugs in a surreptitious test being conducted by the company on the efficacy and effects of the drug. It was later sued by both the state and federal government. The company reached an out-of-court settlement with the two parties.
Recalling how he led a delegation to the negotiation talks with Pfizer in the United Kingdom and America, Mr Shekarau expressed optimism that the medical facility would achieve the desired objective of proper diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases afflicting children in Kano and neighbouring states of Nigeria.
The chairman of the Healthcare Programme Trust, S.A.S Galadanci, said that it is unfortunate that the less privileged ones in the society had faced difficulties accessing treatment when faced with chronic ailments. He explained that the facility would redress the problems associated with the dearth of medical facilities and equipment at various healthcare centres in Kano and neighbouring states by the time it becomes fully operational next year.
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