Nigerians get the  green light to sue Pfizer

 Washington, 30 Jun-(ANA)-The US Supreme Court has given Nigerian families the green light to sue the drug company Pfizer over the use of a new antibiotic on their children.

It rejected the firm's appeal against a ruling allowing lawsuits to proceed.

The families say Pfizer did not get their proper consent to test the antibiotic Trovan on 200 sick children during a meningitis outbreak in 1996.

Eleven children died and others were blinded, paralysed or brain-damaged. Pfizer denies all allegations.

The company says the children who took the oral drug had a better survival rate than those who did not.

The meningitis epidemic killed 12,000 children in Nigeria over six months.(ANA)

FA/ANA/30 June 2010-----------