Pfizer faces scrutiny and lawsuits in Nigeria

Pfizer, the world's largest drug company, is under fire in the African country of Nigeria instead of the U.S. or Europe for a change. At the gate here is a Nigerian citizen who believes a drug study involving his son (and others) caused permanent brain damage.

The decade-long study occurred in 1996 to look at meningitis. The process and procedure of the hasty study (and hastily-developed experimental drug) went out of whack at some point, causing death in some and major problems in others.

Did Pfizer use Nigeria's status as a third-world country to test drugs that would not be allowed in industrialized countries? That is the thinking by some, and there are even conspiracy theories by others that believe drug trials in Africa are meant to make citizens infertile.