Bayer and US Government Knowingly Gave HIV to 1,000's

[snot]

From http://www.realfarmacy.com/bayer-and-us-government-knowingly-gave-hiv-to-thousands-of-children/ :

What if a company that you thought you could trust, knowingly sold you a medicine for your child that they knew had the potential to give your child HIV? How would you react? What if a government agency that claims the responsibility for protecting you from such treachery, not only looked the other way, but was complicit in this exchange?

* * * * *

In 1984 Bayer became aware that several batches of this Factor 8 contained HIV. They knew this because there was an outbreak of HIV among hemophiliac children, and this outbreak was traced back to Bayer.

Unable to sell their Factor 8 in the US, Bayer, with the FDA’s permission, (yes that’s right, the FDA allowed Bayer to potentially kill thousands) sold this HIV infected medicine to Argentina, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore after February 1984, according to the documents obtained by the NY Times. The documents showed how Cutter Biological, a division of Bayer, shipped more than 100,000 vials of unheated concentrate, worth more than $4 million, after it began selling the safer product.

The result of this sale of HIV tainted medication ended up infecting tens of thousands and killing thousands. Thousands of innocent children and adults have died at the hand of this corporation and no punitive action has been taken against them. The health department leaders in Argentina, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore were all imprisoned, while the US FDA continues down its hellish path.

More at the link above; see also the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/22/business/2-paths-of-bayer-drug-in-80-s-riskier-one-steered-overseas.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm .

[SummerSnow]

1. Fuck

[roamer65]

2. Question: Does anyone know what company Bayer was broken off from?

Answer: IG Farben

I think that says a lot.

[KT2000]

4. the root of much evil n/t

[treestar]

3. There is a long article at the link

In which it is a lot grayer a question. 80s technology and lack of knowledge about AIDS plays a part.

[snot]

5. NOT really. They're trying to make it sound as if maybe it were gray, but keep reading:

Federal regulators helped keep the overseas sales out of the public eye, the documents indicate. In May of 1985, believing that the companies had broken a voluntary agreement to withdraw the old medicine from the market, the Food and Drug Administration's regulator of blood products, Dr. Harry M. Meyer Jr., summoned officials of the companies to a meeting and ordered them to comply. ''It was unacceptable for them to ship that material overseas,'' he said later in legal papers.

. . . . Dr. Meyer died in 2001.

Whether Cutter was behaving ethically became an issue in internal company discussions. ''Can we in good faith continue to ship nonheat-treated coagulation products to Japan?'' a company task force asked in February 1985, fearing that some of its plasma donors might be H.I.V. positive. . . .

* * * * *

When a Hong Kong distributor in late 1984 expressed an interest in the new product, the records show, Cutter asked the distributor to ''use up stocks'' of the old medicine before switching to its ''safer, better'' product. Several months later, as hemophiliacs in Hong Kong began testing positive for H.I.V., some local doctors questioned whether Cutter was dumping ''AIDS tainted'' medicine into less-developed countries.

If you believe either Bayer or the Feds did not understand that the old medicine was riskier than the new one, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for you.

[WinkyDink]

8. You're joking, right?

[ohheckyeah]

6. That's outrageous. n/t

[WinkyDink]

7. I think revealing such documentation is treason.

*sarcasm,okay?*

[malaise]

9. Nothing shocks me anymore on this planet

One day we'll get the truth re AIDS

[indepat]

10. Would that be the Gipper's FDA? And we all thought the Gipper had been slow to respond to

the AIDs epidemic. Looks like the actions of his FDA led to thousands of HIV/AIDS deaths. Whatta' guy. Deification nears. Now, all at once: all hail the mighty Gipper!