payout
Cables say drug giant hired investigators to find evidence of
corruption on Nigerian attorney general to persuade him to drop legal
action
Sarah Boseley, health editor
Friday December 10 2010
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/09/wikileaks-cables-pfizer-nigeria
The world's biggest pharmaceutical company hired investigators to
unearth evidence of corruption against the Nigerian attorney general
in order to persuade him to drop legal action over a controversial
drug trial involving children with meningitis, according to a leaked
US embassy cable [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-
documents/203205" title="].
Pfizer was sued by the Nigerian state and federal authorities, who
claimed that children were harmed by a new antibiotic, Trovan, during
the trial, which took place in the middle of a meningitis epidemic of
unprecedented scale in Kano in the north of Nigeria in 1996.
Last year, the company came to a tentative settlement with the Kano
state government which was to cost it $75m.
But the cable suggests that the US drug giant did not want to pay out
to settle the two cases ? one civil and one criminal ? brought by the
Nigerian federal government.
The cable reports a meeting [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-
embassy-cables-documents/203205" title="] between Pfizer's country
manager, Enrico Liggeri, and US officials at the Abuja embassy on 9
April 2009. It states: "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."
The cable, classified confidential by economic counsellor Robert
Tansey, continues [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-
documents/203205" title="]: "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."
The release of the Pfizer cable came as:
- The American ambassador to London denounced the leak of classified
US embassy cables from around the world. In tomorrow'sGuardian Louis
Susman writes: "This is not whistleblowing. There is nothing laudable
about endangering innocent people. There is nothing brave about
sabotaging the peaceful relations between nations on which our common
security depends."
- It emerged that Julian Assange had been transferred to the
segregation unit in Wandsworth prison and had distanced WikiLeaks from
cyber attacks on MasterCard, Visa, PayPal and other organisations.
- Other newly released cables revealed that China is losing patience
with the failure of the Burmese regime to reform, and disclosed US
fears that Europe will cave in to Serbian pressure to partition
Kosovo.
While many thousands fell ill during the Kano epidemic, Pfizer's
doctors treated 200 children, half with Trovan and half with the best
meningitis drug used in the US at the time, ceftriaxone. Five children
died on Trovan and six on ceftriaxone, which for the company was a
good result. But later it was claimed Pfizer did not have proper
consent from parents to use an experimental drug on their children
and there were questions over the documentation of the trial. Trovan
was licensed for adults in Europe, but later withdrawn because of
fears of liver toxicity.
The cable claims that Liggeri said Pfizer, which maintains the trial
was well-conducted and any deaths were the direct result of the
meningitis itself, was not happy about settling the Kano state cases,
"but had come to the conclusion that the $75m figure was reasonable
because the suits had been ongoing for many years costing Pfizer more
than $15m a year in legal and investigative fees".
In an earlier meeting on 2 April between two Pfizer lawyers, Joe
Petrosinelli and Atiba Adams, Liggeri, the US ambassador and the
economic section, it had been suggested that Pfizer owed the
favourable outcome of the federal cases to former Nigerian head of
state Yakubu Gowon.
He had interceded on Pfizer's behalf with the Kano state governor,
Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau ? who directed that the state's settlement
demand should be reduced from $150m to $75m ? and with the Nigerian
president. "Adams reported that Gowon met with President Yar'Adua and
convinced him to drop the two federal high court cases against
Pfizer," the cable says.
But five days later Liggeri, without the lawyers present, enlarged on
the covert operation against Aondoakaa.
The cable says Liggeri went on to suggest that the lawsuits against
Pfizer "were wholly political in nature".
He alleged that Médecins sans Frontières, which was in the same
hospital in Kano, "administered Trovan to other children during the
1996 meningitis epidemic and the Nigerian government has taken no
action".
MSF - which was the first to raise concerns about the trial -
vehemently denies this. Jean-Hervé Bradol, former president of MSF
France, said: "We have never worked with this family of antibiotic. We
don't use it for meningitis. That is the reason why we were shocked to
see this trial in the hospital."
There is no suggestion that the attorney general was swayed by the
pressure. However, the dropping of the federal cases provoked
suspicion in Nigeria. Last month, the Nigerian newspaper Next ran a
story headlined, "Aondoakaa's secret deal with Pfizer".
The terms of the agreement that led to the withdrawal of the $6bn
federal suit in October 2009 against Pfizer "remain unknown because of
the nature of [the] deal brokered by ... Mike Aondoakaa", it said.
Pfizer and the Nigerian authorities had signed a confidentiality
agreement. "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 article said.
Aondoakaa expressed astonishment at the claims in the US cable when
approached by the Guardian. "I'm very surprised to see I became a
subject, which is very shocking to me," he said. "I was not aware of
Pfizer looking into my past. For them to have done that is a very
serious thing. I became a target of a multinational: you are supposed
to have sympathy with me ? If it is true, maybe I will take legal
action."
In a statement to the Guardian, Pfizer said: "The Trovan cases brought
by both the federal government of Nigeria and Kano state were resolved
in 2009 by mutual agreement. Pfizer negotiated the settlement with the
federal government of Nigeria in good faith and its conduct in
reaching that agreement was proper. Although Pfizer has not seen any
documents from the US embassy in Nigeria regarding the federal
government cases, the statements purportedly contained in such
documents are completely false.
"As previously disclosed in Pfizer's 10-Q filing in November 2009, per
the agreement with the federal government, Nigeria dismissed its civil
and criminal actions against the company. Pfizer denied any wrongdoing
or liability in connection with the 1996 study. The company agreed to
pay the legal fees and expenses incurred by the federal government
associated with the Trovan litigation. Pursuant to the settlement,
payment was made to the federal government's counsel of record in the
case, and there was no payment made to the federal government of
Nigeria itself. As is common practice, the agreement was covered by a
standard confidentiality clause agreed to by both parties."
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010
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