Business Ethics on a Global Scale. In the 1990s, Pfi zer, Inc., developed a new antibiotic called Trovan (trovafl oxacin mesylate).

Tests showed that in animals Trovan had life-threatening side effects, including joint disease, abnormal cartilage growth, liver damage, and a degenerative bone condition. In 1996, an epidemic of bacterial meningitis swept across Nigeria. Pfi zer sent three U.S. physicians to test Trovan on children who were patients in Nigeria’s Infectious Disease Hospital. Pfi zer did not obtain the patients’ consent, alert them to the risks, or tell them that Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders)

was providing an effective conventional treatment at the same site. Eleven children died in the experiment, and others were left blind, deaf, paralyzed, or brain damaged. Rabi Abdullahi and other Nigerian children fi led a suit in a U.S. federal district court against Pfi zer, alleging a violation of a customary international law norm prohibiting involuntary medical experimentation on humans. Did Pfi zer violate any ethical standards? What might Pfi zer have done to avert the consequences? Explain.

[Abdullahi v. Pfi zer, Inc., 562 F.3d 163 (2d Cir. 2009)]