Informant38

Fun with primates:

...Previous research had suggested that binding to CD28 could cause a cascade of events that would ultimately tame an out-of-control immune system. That's certainly what seemed to happen to mice and monkeys. Since arthritis is caused by out-of-control immune systems, TGN1412 looked like a promising drug. The doctors took care to give the human subjects 1/500 the dose given to the monkeys. Neverthless, it apparently sent their immune systems into a rage, producing massive amounts of inflammation and other sorts of damaging responses.
[...]
a cautionary lesson about drug tests. Testing a drug on a mouse or a monkey may tell you something about how the drug will work in humans--but only if it acts on biology that we share with those animals.

Loom 02.May.06
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A panel of Nigerian medical experts has concluded that the world's largest pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, violated international law by testing an unapproved drug on children with brain infections at a field hospital.
[...]
The test came to public attention in December 2000, when The Post published the results of a year-long investigation into overseas pharmaceutical testing. Pfizer contended that its researchers travelled to Kano with a purely philanthropic motive, to help fight the epidemic, which ultimately killed more than 15,000 Africans.
The committee rejected that explanation, pointing out that Pfizer physicians completed their trial and left while "the epidemic was still raging".
The panel said an oral form of Trovan, the Pfizer drug used in the test, had apparently never been given to children with meningitis.
There are no records indicating that Pfizer told the children or their parents that they were part of an experiment.
An approval letter from a Nigerian ethics committee, which Pfizer used to justify its actions, was a falsified document that had been concocted and backdated by the company's lead researcher in Kano, the report said.

Age(AU) 08.May.06