The lawsuit, filed on behalf of 30 Nigerian families, alleges Pfizer violated their human rights when it set up a clinic to give Trovan, an experimental antibiotic, to 200 children during a meningitis epidemic that swept the north of the country in 1996. Lawsuits have already been filed in Nigeria, but last week, in a sign the company may face far greater damages, the first suit was filed in the US. The families say Pfizer did not obtain "informed consent" before administering the treatment.