John Le Carré, The Constant Gardener

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Africans have good reason to fear international pharmaceutical companies. In Kano, Nigeria, Big Pharma was connected to one atrocity that lead to the loss of human life, years of law suits, and, it is speculated, to John le Carré’s

The Constant Gardner

(2001). Summarized in several newspapers (e.g., Stephens, 2000, 2006), Nigeria, suffering meningococcal meningitis epidemic, allowed Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) to set up clinics in Kano to treat the sick. MSF treated patients, particularly children, with chloramphenicol, a drug approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) for bacterial meningitis. But the cases overwhelmed MSF’s ability to contain the epidemic.

Then the American pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, offered desperate patients the experimental

2662 words

Citation: Beene, LynnDianne. "The Constant Gardener". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 January 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1185, accessed 28 March 2024.]

1185 The Constant Gardener 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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