¶ … powerful antibiotics in order to fight the wave of strong bacteria and viruses which plague the world as a whole, there is no excuse for the unethical practice of intentionally skipping corners in order to test and approve new drugs faster. This is exactly the case of Pfizer in the 1990's when they took their study trials of the new antibiotic Troven into the developing nation of Nigeria to test on children, many of whose parents never gave consent for such testing. After all evidence has been reviewed, Pfizer did act unethically by not following FDA rules of providing consent, along with allegations that the company ignored patients who did not respond to the drug, therefore letting innocent children die unnecessarily.
The FDA requires that all test with children include the consent of the biological parents, or whatever guardian is in place to care for the child. Yet, this was not the case in Nigeria during the Troven tests. Because the nation of Nigeria was so willing to accept any form of medical help in order to curb the massive epidemic of bacterial meningitis, Pfizer skipped the process of getting consent from individual parents. This was an extremely unethical move, because in many cases the parents had no idea their child was partaking in a study,
Another example of the unethical decisions made by Pfizer was the move not to remove many children off the experimental drug when they failed to respond to it. In response, many children died who might have had a chance if they had been removed off the Trovan and placed on a more traditional antibiotic. Yet, Pfizer made the decision to ignore such dire needs of its patients and continue on with the study despite the ramifications. This is a blatant example of a completely unethical decision made to promote a faster passing of the drug into FDA standards.
Although this strategy was meant to provide faster results to the FDA on the benefits of Trovan, I would have rather taken a slower and more ethical root. Yes, this did help clear the drug for use in the United States, but not for the use of children; many of who were the participants of the studies in Nigeria. This study represents a cold-hearted move for faster money, despite the human consequences.
