Dehumanization: The deprivation of human qualities, personality, or spirit.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dehumanization
One clear and tangible example of dehumanization by a pharmaceutical company can be found in the Trovan drug trials conducted in Nigeria during the 1996 meningitis epidemic. During this devastating meningitis outbreak, Pfizer tested a new antibiotic, Trovan, in a field hospital. The Nigerian government claims the trials were conducted illegally while 11 children died and hundreds more were disabled as a result of Trovan. According to the lawsuit filed by the Nigerian government and the Kano State, it is alleged that, in addition to researchers giving children substandard doses of a comparison antibiotic, Pfizer operated under a falsified ethics approval letter while administering a previously untested trial drug to children. It is also alleged that Pfizer did not have signed consent forms for the 200 critically ill children participating in the trial and the trial did not conform to U.S. patient-protection standards.
In a 2007 statement, Pfizer maintained that the trials were conducted legally, safely and with the “full knowledge of the Nigerian government.”
As of April of this year (2009), Forbes.com as well as Fox News and other reporting agencies (via Associated Press) rumored that a settlement for $75 million dollars was nearing finalization between Pfizer and the Nigerian government and victims of the study.
According to Forbes.com, Pfizer initially applied to use Trovan for pediatric meningitis based on its trial data. After a Food and Drug Administration audit uncovered “dozens of discrepancies” in its trial records, Pfizer withdrew that use from its application. Pfizer stated its intention to renew its application following results of a global pediatric trial, but the drug maker never had the opportunity. “After approving Trovan for 14 other uses in 1997, the FDA advised Pfizer to pull the drug entirely--two years and more than 2.5 million prescriptions later--citing reports of liver damage in the U.S.”
Pharmaceutical industries that were once built on the fundamental principle of improving the quality of life have abandoned the pursuit of good health in the interest of profit.
0 comments:
Post a Comment