PARIS—A man died in a French hospital Sunday after taking part in a drug trial for a painkiller based on a compound similar to cannabis, and five other participants remain hospitalized.
The Rennes University Hospital announced the death in a statement, but didn’t identify the patient, who had already been in a state of brain death.
He was among six male volunteers between 28 and 49 hospitalized last week after volunteering to take the experimental drug. French health authorities have said three of the hospitalized volunteers face possible brain damage, and an investigation is underway into what French Health Minister Marisol Touraine called “an accident of exceptional gravity.”
The trial, which began Jan. 7, involved 90 healthy volunteers who were given the experimental drug in varying doses at different times.
