Filed at 7:33 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Pfizer Inc. was accused in a lawsuit Wednesday of causing brain damage and sometimes death to Nigerian children when it conducted ``secret testing'' of a new meningitis drug in 1996.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, seeks unspecified damages on behalf of 30 children who participated in the drug trial in Kano, in northern Nigeria.

The children were among 200 youngsters who were part of the testing of Trovan, an unproven drug administered in a form never before tested on humans, the lawsuit says.

The families of seven of 11 children who died after participating in the test were among plaintiffs listed in the lawsuit.

A telephone message left with Pfizer was not immediately returned.

According to the lawsuit, the tests were conducted during an epidemic of bacterial meningitis in Nigeria that left children desperate for medical care.

``Rather than provide the children with a safe, effective and proven therapy for bacterial meningitis, Pfizer chose to select children to participate in a medical experiment of a new, untested and unproven drug without first obtaining their informed consent,'' the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit asserts that the drug was known to have life-threatening effects that soon surfaced during the tests in an impoverished city experiencing epidemics of bacterial meningitis, measles and cholera.

The lawsuit says Pfizer hurried plans to carry out its tests, taking a variety of steps that violated international law, federal regulations and medical ethics.