When I travelled to Uganda as part of my research into my book I wanted to stop into a clinic in Kampala that was run by Pfizer. I contacted their media office and we went around and around and was told I couldn’t visit the Infectious Disease Institute (IDI), which is on the grounds of Mulago Hospital. The reason was that only a limited number of trials were conducted there. Once in Kampala and interviewing officials I asked about the Pfizer clinic. One prominent doctor at Nsambya Hospital said IDI conducted a significant number of trials. A Ugandan health official said no trials were conducted at IDI. I was left wondering what was accurate: some trials, no trials, or lots of trials.  What I was sure of was that Pfizer appeared to be a slippery operation when it came to trials . Recent articles have showed this to be true:

From the Wall Street Journal (subscription):

FDA Warns Pfizer On Clinical Study Of Antipsychotic Geodo

From Bloomberg/Business Week:

Pfizer’s Geodon Trial Had ‘Significant Violations’ (Update2)

The Courier Post:

Pfizer not fixing test problems, FDA says