Recent international legal news

US Supreme Court allows drugs test case against Pfizer to proceed under the Alien Tort Statute

29 June 2010

It is alleged that US pharmaceutical Pfizer conducted non-consensual drug tests on 200 Nigerian children in 1996, leading to 11 deaths and others sustaining serious injuries including blindness, deafness and paralysis. 

The US Supreme Court upheld the New York based Second Circuit Court of Appeal's decision - denying Pfizer's claim for a writ of Certiorari. This means that Pfizer is likely to be sued in a US Federal Court by the Nigerian children for violations in Nigeria, under the 'law of nations'. The Supreme Court's decision expands the potential range of cases that can be brought from abroad under the Alien Tort Statute. Read the Supreme Court’s denial of Certorari here (Pfizer Inc. V Abdulla, Rabi: et al: 09-34).

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