Tag Archives: Pharmaceutical Companies

Alien Tort Statute Update: Pfizer Settles Suit with Nigerian Plaintiffs

Earlier today, the District Court for the Southern District of New York entered an order dismissing, with prejudice, plaintiffs’ claims in Abdullahi v. Pfizer, 01-cv-8118 (S.D.N.Y.). The case involved allegations that Pfizer conducted nonconsensual testing of Trovan, an experimental drug, during a meningitis outbreak in Nigeria in 1996.  Earlier this month, plaintiffs and Pfizer had filed a stipulation of dismissal after the parties reached an agreement to settle all claims.

The Nigerian plaintiffs had originally filed suit in 2001,… More

Supreme Court Rejects Pfizer’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari in Alien Tort Statute Case

On June 29th, the United States Supreme Court declined to grant a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Pfizer Inc. seeking review of a January 2009 decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals involving claims brought under the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”). The Second Circuit’s decision held that Nigerian plaintiffs could properly bring claims against Pfizer under the ATS for “violation of the norm of customary international law prohibiting medical experimentation on human subjects without their consent.” … More