Nigeria's Kano State and US drugs firm Pfizer have agreed to settle a multi-million dollar lawsuit out of court, lawyers for both sides say.

Pfizer has been accused of killing 11 children and injuring 181 others when an antibiotic was tested on them during a meningitis epidemic in 1996.

The company denies the claims, saying they were victims of the outbreak.

The Kano State lawyer told the BBC compensation would be paid to victims, but figures could not yet be disclosed.

Barrister Aliyu Umar said money would also be given to a local hospital.

He made the comments after a court agreed to postpone the case until 25 May, with both sides saying they have come to a settlement but have yet to work out the details.

They promised not to disclose the amounts involved until they sit down and negotiate how to implement the agreement says Barrister Aliyu Umar.

"I want to report that broad and principal fundamental agreement has been reached between Kano State government and Pfizer," the drug firm's lawyer Anthony Idigbe said.

"They promised not to disclose the amounts involved until they sit down and negotiate how to implement the agreement," Mr Umar told the BBC's Hausa service
"This is all what remains to do so that the victims will get some compensation," he said.

According to Reuters news agency, Nigeria's federal government sued for an additional $6.5bn in 2007 but sources close to the negotiations have said it is expected to withdraw its case if Kano reaches a settlement.

Judge Shehu Atiku said the next hearing in the Kano case would be held on 25 May but said there was "a strong indication that the case is about to come to an end", Reuters reports.

In January, Nigerian families were given leave to sue Pfizer in the US over the affair.

The families say that Pfizer tested out an oral antibiotic called Trovan on some 200 ill children in hospital in Kano, without first getting the consent of their parents.

Pfizer has always maintained that the tests were carried out with the approval of the Nigerian government and that the children's parents were fully informed.

The 1996 meningitis epidemic killed 12,000 children in Nigeria in six months.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7982236.stm

i read this earlier but i dont really know how to take the news. maibe i second reading while my head has cooled down would help.

Nigerian children were used as Guinea pigs in Pfizer's experiment.

You'd hope with 12,000 people dead, our government would learn and hopefully this out of court money earned could be used to improve the lives of the people. Let's hope especially since our government has connived in hiding the amount received.

Well, considering health care has not increased much since the epidemic that claimed 12,000 lives, I am not sure any other company is going to come in to help during the next one. The settlements will likely go to private pockets in the end, so are we any better off now with this news? Not saying Pfizer ought not to pay up, just that with this, other companies are likely to thread more cautiously. I don’t see anyone suing the government for sitting back while 12,000 died.

Well, another platform for corruption has been raised again. Who is trying to hide the amount being paid? Pfizer of course! They're hoping they can offer some few officials a few hundred thousand dollars and lay the issue to rest, but it won't happen. This matter has carried on for about 13 years now and will still be on till justice is done.

Most people believe that 11 children were killed and 181 injured because of the drug test while about 12,000 died of meningitis. Wake up and smell the coffee people. 12,000 children died and their deaths could only be blamed on meningitis because there was no other explanation to what was happening. When was it discovered that Pfizer was testing drugs? How was it discovered? How many children had Pfizer experimented on before they were found out? How come it's the year that pfizer came to use our kids as guinea pigs that such a record of 12,000 children decided to die of meningitis?

Pfizer killed more than 11,000 children in their experiment. It was only 11 that had physical eveidence of trovan in their blood. It was when a massive number of deaths continued to be reorded that local health officials decided to test patients for the drugs they were being given.

Pfizer committed mass murder and no matter what, they will never escape this one.