American drug maker Pfizer faces the revival of two lawsuits from 30 families in Nigeria who say the company illegally tested an antibiotic on children, killing eleven in a clinical trial.

The Washington Post reports a lower court had dismissed the suits, saying the families should take their case to Nigerian court. Friday’s federal appeals ruling means the lawsuits can now be heard in United States courts.

Richard P. Altschuler, an attorney representing the families, told the Washington Post:
"This is a homerun for us. The judges are making a statement. They are telling companies, if you go overseas, justice will come back to the United States."

The BBC reports the lawsuit accuses the company of “not explain[ing] that the proposed treatment was experimental.” The suit also alleges the company took advantage of the impoverished people of Kano, a village in northern Nigeria:

"But rather than making the trip to provide humanitarian relief, as charitable organisations were doing, Pfizer hurried to Kano to exploit the misfortune there for its own benefit.”

Online science and health journal eFluxMedia commented further on the testing of drugs in poor regions of the world:

“Pharmaceutical companies have greatly increased the number of drug trials in poor countries in the last two decades, allowing life saving drugs to be developed faster and at less cost, while providing developing countries with cutting edge medicines and treatments. However, it looks like Pfizer did wrong in its case.”

Newsday.com reports Pfizer denies the claims. The company’s rebuttal:

"Pfizer has great sympathy for everyone who suffered during the devastating meningitis epidemic in 1996," it said. "The company has said all along that all clinical evidence points to the fact that any deaths or injuries were the direct result of the illness, and not the treatment provided to patients in the Pfizer study."