French drug trial leaves one brain dead, five injured
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One person has been left brain dead and five others are in a serious condition after taking part in a clinical trial in France of an experimental medicine from an unnamed drug company, the French Health Ministry said on Friday.
The ministry did not say what the medicine was intended to be used for. A person familiar with the situation said the drug was a cannabis-based painkiller in the initial stage of human testing.
The ministry said the six volunteers in Rennes, in western France, had been in good health until taking the oral medication, developed by "a European laboratory".
Britain's GW Pharma, which markets an approved cannabis-derived treatment for spasticity caused by multiple sclerosis, and France's largest drugmaker Sanofi both said they were not involved in the trial.
