Sometimes The Lab Rats Just Don't Cut It.....

....and finding people in the rich countries of the west to experiment on can be just a pain in the ass; getting their permission, following basic safety procedures, what a drag! Well Pfizer has come up with an outside the box solution on how to cut through the red tape involved with testing your chemicals on humans. Just use African children. From the Washington Post:

A panel of Nigerian medical experts has concluded that Pfizer Inc. violated international law by testing an unapproved drug on children with brain infections at a field hospital.

The report concludes that Pfizer never obtained authorization from the Nigerian government to give the unproven drug to nearly 100 children and infants. Pfizer selected the patients at a field hospital in the city of Kano, where the children had been taken to be treated for an often deadly strain of meningitis. At the time, Doctors Without Borders was dispensing approved antibiotics at the hospital.

Pfizer's experiment was "an illegal trial of an unregistered drug," the Nigerian panel concluded, and a "clear case of exploitation of the ignorant."

Five children died after being treated with the experimental antibiotic and others showed signs of arthritis, although there is no evidence the drug played a part.

Exploitation of the ignorant is the bedrock upon which capitalism is built baby. Whatever gets that stock price up.....

Read the whole article here.