French drug trial: one person 'brain dead' and five critical after test goes badly wrong

Six people are critically ill – with one said to be brain dead - following clinical trials in France for a new "cannabis-based painkiller".

Health minister Marisol Touraine said the volunteers had been taking oral medication in a drugs trial run by a private laboratory in Rennes when there was a "very serious accident".

The trial has been called off and all test subjects recalled for examination.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

According to the Daily Telegraph, one person involved is now "brain dead", though the BBC says only that the worst-affected victim is "in a coma".

Ouest France regional newspaper says the test was being carried out by the private laboratory Biotrial, which has 200 staff in France as well as offices in other parts of the world, including the UK and US.

While the type of drug being tested has not yet been confirmed, French media say it was a new analgesic that contains cannabis.

The accident comes almost ten years after a drugs trial in the UK went disastrously wrong. Six healthy young men suffered organ failure after taking the drug TGN1412 at Northwick Park hospital in London.

The worst-affected, plumber Ryan Wilson, who lost toes and fingers, was awarded £2m compensation, as the Daily Mail reported at the time.

A report later said the company managing the trial, Parexel, had been unclear about a safe dose to start the subjects on and it should have tested the drug on one person at a time.