How much do you have to pay to get away with murder?

How much do you think you might have to pay to get off the hook if you used innocent children as helpless guinea pigs?

Just ask executives for Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker.

Two years ago, the government of Nigeria charged Pfizer execs with homicide and other criminal counts. The legal action also sought about $9 billion in restitution and damages.

The charges stem from one of the most shocking chapters in drug company history. In 1996, Pfizer conducted a trial of the antibiotic Trovan on Nigerian children with meningitis. Nigerian authorities say the trial, in which 11 children died, was conducted illegally.

Pfizer claimed that the children died of meningitis – not from side effects of the drug – and that the trial was conducted with the knowledge of the government.

About two years after the fatal trial, the FDA approved Trovan for sale in the U.S. The following year, the agency severely restricted use of the drug after it was linked to several deaths prompted by severe liver dysfunction.

So…how much do you think you might have to pay to wiggle out of this one?

$9 billion?

Not even close. Someone at Pfizer will be able to go to the petty cash drawer, count out $75 million, and this problem will just go away. According to the Washington Post, that’s the deal that Nigerian authorities have worked out with Pfizer attorneys.

And those criminal charges? Can’t you guess? As usual, criminal charges just don’t stick to Teflon-coated drug company execs.