Drug trial leaves 1 dead, 5 injured

A man has died and five others are in a serious but stable condition at a Brittany hospital after a clinical trial into a new medicine went wrong.

Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the phase 1 trial, which was carried out at a private laboratory in Rennes and saw 90 people take the experimental drug.

The Rennes-based company behind the tests, Biotrial, which has carried out thousands of trials over the past 25 years, said there had "never been an incident of this seriousness in France".

In a statement on its website, the lab confirmed there had been "serious adverse events related to the test drug" and stressed that "international regulations and Biotrial's procedures were followed at every stage".

The trial has been suspended and all the participants have all been called back to assess their health.

Gilles Edan, chief neuroscientist at Rennes CHU university hospital, said three of the volunteers being treated in hospital could have permanent brain damage.

The men, in their 30s and 40s, started taking the drug on January 7 and started showing severe side-effects three days later. One of the volunteers, who was left brain-dead, died on Sunday.

Health minister Marisol Touraine said it was a "tragic accident" and the volunteers' "lives have been brutally turned upside-down".

In total 128 had taken part in the trial - 90 were given the drug at different dose levels and the others received a placebo.