Six seriously ill after French drug trial

An ” accident ” throughout a medicines test in Italy has quit one individual brain-dead five hospitalised and, Health Minister Marisol Touraine stated on Friday.

Participants had taken “a drug taken orally being developed by a European laboratory” that was licensed to operate, the ministry said in a statement (in French).

Touraine assured the public she would “shed light” on what went wrong with the experiment, AFP reported.

In 2006, six healthy volunteers given an experimental drug in London ended up in intensive care.

A man is “clinically dead” and five others are in a “disturbing” condition after testing a new cannabis-based painkiller as part of a clinical trial.

Cannabis has been used since ancient times for both medicinal and recreational purposes.

When the accident actually took place remains unclear, with media reports stating the beginning of the week and the health ministry saying Thursday.

In all, eight people were involved in the trial.

– Phase I is generally carried out with a sample of fewer than 100 healthy volunteers to assess drug tolerance and check for side-effects.

All trials on the drug at the clinic in Rennes in Brittany have now been suspended.

Alerted to the incident, French Health Minister Marisol Touraine is set to arrive in Rennes, about 300km from Paris, where she will hold a press conference. Researchers generally start with the lowest possible dose for humans after extensive tests in animals.