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 ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) - Government lawyers filed a new $7 billion civil lawsuit Friday against Pfizer Inc., adding a more serious fraud charge to their allegations that the U.S. drug maker did not properly obtain consent from families while testing an experimental drug on their children.
The government has accused Pfizer of taking advantage of a 1996 meningitis epidemic to test an experimental drug without authorization or the full understanding of the families involved — allegedly contributing to the deaths of some of the children and sickening others. Pfizer denies wrongdoing.
Government lawyer Babatunde Irukera said lawyers recently discovered material that suggested Pfizer committed fraud by bypassing company rules on obtaining consent from families. Based on that, they withdrew their original suit Friday and hours later filed a new one.
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