HUNDREDS of people protested angrily outside a court here Monday after the judge hearing a suit against US drugs company Pfizer failed to turn up and case had to be adjourned. A high court in Kano, northern Nigeria, in March gave leave to three Nigerian families to sue Pfizer in a class action over tests it carried out of a new drug, Trovan, during a meningitis epidemic in 1996. Eleven of the children who used the drug later died and some were maimed, but Pfizer insists the drug was beneficial to most of the children who took it and harmed none. The hearing was adjourned to September 24 due to the absence of the judge. The families of the victims are claiming $100-million dollars in compensation from the US drug giant, and another $100-million dollars from the Nigerian government for allowing the test to take place. – AFP