The Phase I clinical trials were conducted by Parexel at an independent clinical trials unit in leased space on the premises of Northwick Park and St. Mark's Hospital, London, on 13 March 2006. Parexel is a company that carries out drug trials on behalf of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Healthy volunteers were recruited to the study with a £2,000 fee. The trial resulted in hospitalization of all six volunteers administered the drug, at least four of whom suffered multiple organ dysfunction. The trial was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study, with two of the eight subjects receiving a placebo, and six receiving 1/500th of the highest dose used in previous experiments with cynomolgus macaques. All six of the trial subjects who received the drug were male, aged 19 to 34 (median 29.5); none had a notable medical history, and all were well in the 2 weeks before the trial. The drug was given by intravenous infusion, starting at 8am, with an interval of around 10 minutes between patients, and each infusion lasting from 3 to 6 minutes. Roughly five minutes after the last participant had received his dose, the participant who had received the first dose complained of headache, and soon afterwards fever and pain. He took his shirt off, complaining that he felt like he was burning. Shortly after, the remaining participants who received the actual drug also became ill, vomiting and complaining of severe pain. The first patient was transferred to the Northwick Park hospital's intensive care unit 12 hours after infusion, with the others following within the next 4 hours. A severely affected volunteer, Mohammed Abdalla, a 28-year-old who said he had hoped to set his brother up in business in Egypt, was described as having suffered a ballooned head. This led to his description as being similar to the "Elephant Man". A volunteer also lost his fingers and toes as a result of being injected with the drug. All of the men were reported to have experienced severe cytokine release syndrome resulting in angioedema, swelling of skin and mucous membranes, akin to the effects of the complement cascade in severe allergic reaction. The patients were treated with corticosteroids to reduce inflammation, and plasma-exchange to attempt to remove TGN1412 from their circulation. Paradoxically, the men's white blood cells had vanished almost completely several hours after administration of TGN1412. According to a press release from 5 July 2006 on the North West London Hospitals NHS Trust website, where the men were treated, the patients continued to improve and "five of them went home within a month of the incident, while one patient remained in hospital until 26 June, when he also went home."