There is no known antidote to the drug, the chief neuroscientist at the hospital in Rennes said. Speaking Friday at a press conference in the western French city of Rennes, Edan said one man is brain dead and four others have "neurological problems" — of which three could have permanent damage. The French health ministry said the six male patients aged 28 to 49 had been in good health until taking the oral medication. Pierre-Gilles Edan, head of the hospital’s neurology department, said one man was brain dead, three others were suffering a “handicap that could be irreversible” and another had neurological problems. The trial, which involved taking the drug orally and has now been suspended, was conducted by a private laboratory in Rennes.  One person is brain dead and five others are seriously ill after taking part in a drug trial for Portuguese pharmaceutical firm Bial at a clinic in north-west France. The trial was intended to test for side-effects of the new drug but all trials at the clinic have been suspended and the French state prosecutor has opened an inquiry. The French health minister, Marisol Touraine, said 90 people in total had taken part in the trial and received some dosage of the drug; others had taken a placebo. The hospitalised men started taking the drug regularly on 7 January and began showing severe side-effects three days later. The trial was conducted by Biotrial, a French-based company with an international reputation which has carried out thousands of trials since it was set up in 1989. Clinical trials 
 
 Trials typically have three phases to assess a new medicine for safety and effectiveness 
 
 Phase I tests for safety. The trials often last a year or more, involving several thousand patients 
 
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 The study was a Phase I clinical trial, in which healthy volunteers take the medication to evaluate the safety of its use, the ministry said.
– A drug trial in France has gone horribly wrong, leaving one healthy volunteer brain-dead; three other men may have suffered irreversible brain damage, another has "neurological problems," and a sixth is hospitalized with less severe problems, reports AP. Details on what happened, including what drug was being tested and its manufacturer, remain under wraps. One thing that is known: No treatment is available. Early reports in France suggested it was a cannabis-based painkiller, reports the Guardian, but the health ministry has denied that. The AP describes it as some kind of "painkiller compound." Testing was being conducted by the French company Biotrial, a veteran player in the industry, at a clinic in Rennes. All 90 volunteers who took the drug were healthy before the trial started, reports the BBC. Those hospitalized range in age from 28 to 49 and began taking the drug on Jan. 7. Health Minister Marisol Touraine promised to "get to the bottom... of this tragic accident" and said she's been "overwhelmed" by the tragic turn for participants. "Their lives have been brutally turned upside down." The study had been in phase one, in which volunteers take the drug orally to evaluate its effectiveness and side effects. A message on Biotrial's website states that "serious adverse events" occurred and says that international regulations "were followed at every stage throughout the trial, in particular the emergency procedures for the transfer of subjects to the hospital."