by Playfuls Staff |
6th August 2006
Almost five months after a disastrous drug trial in Britain left six people seriously ill, one of the volunteers has contracted cancer, British media reported Sunday. [more]
Thirty-five-year-old David Oakley told the Mail on Sunday tabloid he was showing the first signs of a lymphoid malignancy.
An immunologist who carried out an independent study on the patients' health, said it was likely that the other five volunteers would also contract cancer or another autoimmune disease.
Oakley, who was previously only known as Patient A, suffered massive head swelling and organ failure after being administered the active substance TGN412.
Oakley told the Mail on Sunday he was seeking compensation from Parexel, the company that arranged the drug trials.
"When I left hospital the doctors there told me that I should recover fully," Oakley was quoted as saying.
The insurer of TeGenero pharmaceutical company, the German manufacturer of TGN412 developed to treat rheumatoid arthritis, leukaemia and multiple sclerosis, paid four of the men a sum of 10,000 pounds (14,400 euros) each.
The six are now demanding 5 million pounds each.
The mid-March drug trial was the first time the substance was being tested in humans.
© 2006 DPA
