THE trial of the US drugs company Pfizer over a 1996 drug test that killed 11 children in northern Nigeria has stalled due to the absence of a victim’s lawyer. Three Nigerian families have filed suit against Pfizer over tests it carried out of a new drug, Trovan or Trovafloxacin, during a meningitis epidemic in 1996. Eleven of the children who used the drug later died. The families of the victims are claiming $100m in compensation from Pfizer and another $100m from the Nigerian government. – AFP