Pharmaceutics company Pfizer is currently facing various allegations in Nigeria concerning malpractice and illegal drug trial that cost the lives of 11 poor children. The country's federal government and state government of Kano filed lawsuits against the company asking US$ 10 billion in damages.

According to accounts of people in Nigeria and Kano State Hospital, Pfizer administered untested drug Trovan Floxacin back in 1996 to around 200 Nigerian children. Aside from those who died, a good number of the said sample population are now stricken with sickness and abnormalities such as being deaf, brain damage, and paralysis.

During that time, Nigeria was plagued by meningitis. Trovan wasn't licensed at that time and the other alternative is the use of common antibiotic ceftriaxone. People at medical charity Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) said that Pfizer wanted to compare the new medicine with the antibiotics.

However, the children allegedly didn't respond to the medicine and it's standard operating procedure among doctors to immediately change the medication in the event that the patients' health doesn't show any improvements. MSF added that Pfizer doctors continued administering Trovan to children despite the lack of positive response.

For purposes of information, be informed that this happened in 1996. Trovan Floxacin was approved for use in the United States in 1997 for adults and not in children. However, this medicine is not in use today anywhere in the world because many patients in U.S. died of liver problems after having put under the said medicine.

Trovan Floxacin remained in circulation for two years.