One man has been announced dead and several others seriously ill after testing out a new painkiller medicine in France.
After initially falling into a coma and being announced brain dead on Friday, the hospital the Frenchman was residing in confirmed that he had passed away yesterday, January 17.
The other five are thought to now be in a stable condition after also falling ill after taking the drug, although three of the five are said to have permanent brain damage. On Friday, Head of Neurology at the Rennes Hospital (north-west France) Pierre-Gilles Edan described the three as suffering a "handicap that could be irreversible.”
The six patients that fell in where amongst 90 testing the drug, and a further 18 patients were testing the placebo version of the medication. A statement revealed that the other 84 patients who took the drug where contacted.
According to the neuroscientist at the hospital in Rennes, at present there is no known antidote to the drug.
Reports have suggested that the drug being trialled was a painkiller and mood disorder medication based on the natural brain compound that has the same function as an active ingredient in cannabis.
According to reports, the lab Biotrial was in Phase 1 of the trial, meaning that it was the first time it had been tested on humans.