£1m bonus for 'Elephant Man' drug boss: nothing for victims

The payment, in the form of a bumper cash and share package, has provoked a storm of protest. One lawyer acting for the "Elephant Man" drug trial volunteers branded the bonus an insult to his clients.

The latest annual accounts of Parexel, the US firm that conducted the catastrophic trial at Northwick Park, show it rewarded chief executive and chairman Josef H von Rickenbach a bonus package worth $1.8m - made up of a $286,157 cash bonus and $1,469,490 in shares in the company he founded.

His basic salary also rose to $465,750, bringing his total package to $2,221,397 in 2006 - an increase of almost $1.8m or £1m on his earnings the previous year.

The accounts were published last week in the US, six months after the disastrous events at the company's London clinic.

Four other senior executives on the board have also benefitted despite Parexel being criticised for its role in the trial blunder.

The company, based in Massachusetts, faces being sued for tens of millions of pounds by the Northwick Park volunteers who were each paid £2,000 to test a new drug TGN 1412 developed by a German biopharmaceutical company.

Other than a £10,000 interim payment made in March, the six men, who suffered multiple organ failure, have yet to receive any compensation.

Their limbs and heads swelled to up to three times their normal size, prompting one of the victims to be described as looking like the Elephant Man.

All face an uncertain future with their long term health in doubt. Ryan Wilson, the worse affected, has had ten toes and several fingers amputated. The 20-year-old was in hospital for 147 days.

Experts fear the men may now be susceptible to the kind of illnesses - including leukaemia, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis - which TGN1412 was supposed to treat in the first place.

Lawyer Martyn Day said: "It is an insult to our clients that Mr von Rickenbach can be paid a huge bonus when my clients have not received a penny in compensation.î

Mr von Rickenbach, 51, the chairman of the board and chief executive officer, founded Parexel in 1983.

Lawyers allege the company should pay compensation because of a number of errors that at least exacerbated the problems caused by TGN 1412.

A report into the trial by the Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency, the regulatory watchdog, said Parexel had failed to follow several procedures.

A spokeswoman for Parexel declined to comment.