Africans have good reason to fear international pharmaceutical companies. In Kano, Nigeria, Big Pharma was connected to one atrocity that lead to the loss of human life, years of law suits, and, it is speculated, to John le Carré’s
The Constant Gardner(2001). Summarized in several newspapers (e.g., Stephens, 2000, 2006), Nigeria, suffering meningococcal meningitis epidemic, allowed Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) to set up clinics in Kano to treat the sick. MSF treated patients, particularly children, with chloramphenicol, a drug approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) for bacterial meningitis. But the cases overwhelmed MSF’s ability to contain the epidemic.
Then the American pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, offered desperate patients the experimental
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Citation: Beene, LynnDianne. "The Constant Gardener". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 January 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1185, accessed 04 December 2024.]
