Medical accident in France injurs six
January 15, 2016
Six people participating in a medical experiment in France were reported seriously injured on Friday, in what the country's health minister called a major accident.
Marisol Touraine said the experiment was a "trial of an oral medication being developed by a European laboratory" in northwest France, according to AFP news agency.
One person was in a coma and five were hospitalized following the trial. All of them had been in good health prior to the experiment.
Seeking an answer
The trial was the first phase of a three-stage experiment. In the first phase, doctors test a new drug with a small group of patients. In the second and third stages, doctors work with progressively larger groups of patients.
The ministry didn't name the laboratory or say what the medicine was intended for. A French broadcaster reported that the medicine was cannabis-based, but the health ministry denied that.
Touraine assured the public she would "shed light" on what went wrong with the experiment, AFP reported.
blc/ (AFP, Reuters)