UK firm tried HIV drug on orphans

[kskiska]

GlaxoSmithKline embroiled in scandal in which babies and children were allegedly used as 'laboratory animals'


Orphans and babies as young as three months old have been used as guinea pigs in potentially dangerous medical experiments sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, an Observer investigation has revealed.

British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline is embroiled in the scandal. The firm sponsored experiments on the children from Incarnation Children's Centre, a New York care home that specialises in treating HIV sufferers and is run by Catholic charities.

The children had either been infected with HIV or born to HIV-positive mothers. Their parents were dead, untraceable or deemed unfit to look after them.

According to documents obtained by The Observer, Glaxo has sponsored at least four medical trials since 1995 using Hispanic and black children at Incarnation. The documents give details of all clinical trials in the US and reveal the experiments sponsored by Glaxo were designed to test the 'safety and tolerance' of Aids medications, some of which have potentially dangerous side effects. Glaxo manufactures a number of drugs designed to treat HIV, including AZT.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,1185358,00.html

[rooboy]

1. WHAT???

Any executive or company official who knew about this needs to be jailed for a very long time.

[The Backlash Cometh]

28. Tort reform will almost certainly make this kind of gamble worthwhile

for business executives.

[kanrok]

2. Sick, sick sick, freaking SICK

and this is what the world will look like under Chimpy's second term. Book it. I feel like throwing up.

[madaboutharry]

3. You know, I just F***ing give up

I'll tell you people, I have to take a sledge hammer and destroy this goddamn computer (which works like crap anyway) along with the tv and just check out. I don't know how many more stories of abuse, dishonesty, and corruption I can take. This is too much. And it isn't only Glaxo, who the hell in NYC gave them access to these children and how much did they get paid for that access? That is what I would like to know.

[havocmom]

5. Don't check out, madaboutharry, we need all of us in the fight

Know you can vent all you want with us. You are among friends. Take breaks from the news when you have to and find ways to pour strength and hope back into you soul.

But stay and help the fight. We all need each other. Be as a pebble dropped into a pond: make ripples, make waves. Let others know what you find out. Help take the fight to a more level field.

But tonight, try and find a positive focus. Be well, my friend. We all know there are times when rage is the correct response. Just don't turn the rage on yourself. Never let the bastards get to you that much.

peace, strength, an offer of friendship,
havocmom

[madaboutharry]

29. You are very kind.

Thank you.

[acmavm]

4. So what it comes down to is that these children were used as laboratory

'rats'. Just test animals.

The human race is surely doomed when depravities like this are allowed to occur. This makes me so angry I dont' exactly know what to do, and so unhappy that I could just cry.

What a lovely 'anything for a buck' world we live in.

[Eye and Monkey]

8. "many of the experiments were 'phase 1 trials' - among the most risky"

"The Incarnation trials were run by Columbia University Medical Centre doctors. Columbia spokeswoman Annie Bayne said there had been no clinical trials at Incarnation since 2000..."
Comment: I would be willing to bet that there was a reason that the trials were discontinued in 2000. I would also be willing to bet that there are folks at CUMC who have been dreading that the trials might become LBN.

(Columbia's Bayne said)"...that consent for the children was provided by the Administration for Children's Services, which uses a panel of doctors and lawyers to determine whether the benefits of a trial for each child outweighs the risks."
Comment: That's called an "institutional review board" - and they all keep records/minutes to c.y.a. With 36 clinical trials at one facility, I'd be willing to bet that the potential benefits are not even evident in many cases, much less outweighing the risks.


(Columbia's Bayne said)"...'There are many safeguards in the system. HIV is eventually a fatal disease, but drug therapy has lengthened life significantly,' said Bayne. "
Comment: I hope that Ms. Bayne is not saying what it sounds like she's saying.

[AlienGirl]

10. 'Twas ever thus

This isn't surprising in the least.

Tucker

[sonias]

6. This is the lowest most disgusting thing a company could do

(snip)
'These are some of the most vulnerable individuals in the country and there appears to be a policy of giving drug firms access to them,' she said. 'Throughout the history of medical research we have seen prisoners abused, the mentally ill abused and now poor kids in a care home.'

Sharav has urged the US Food and Drug Administration to investigate and has demanded full disclosure of all adverse effects suffered by the children, including deaths. Brooklyn Democrat councillor Bill de Blasio is also demanding that New York's Administration for Children's Services, which approved the trials, reveal who gave consent and on what grounds.
(snip)

GlaxoSmithKline is slime and any administrators that gave the authorization to use these children for lab rats should be jailed.
These people are truly sick individuals. I'm sure they would never treat their kids like this even if they were sick at the time.

Sonia

[DrWeird]

7. Dammit, now we can't use them as a food source.

I guess we'll have to eat the elderly now.

That's what I propose.

[Eye and Monkey]

9. "Incarnation Children's Centre"? Seems like "Incarnation of Evil".

[khashka]

11. I always thought Neil Gaiman's "Babycakes"

was the sickest form of satire. But it looks like it was actually journalism....


Khashka.

[AlienGirl]

12. What do you expect?

The powerful, left unchecked, will ALWAYS prey upon the powerless.

Unwanted children are always among the most powerless members of a society.

It just happens that the form the predation takes these days is more likely to be "scientific research" than "slavery," but it's just the same old story.

Tucker (really, really thinking about giving up)

[khashka]

26. What did I expect?

Better.

But obviously I was naive.

But don't give up AlienGirl. If we give up it just makes it easier for 'em.

Khash.

[khashka]

27. What did I expect?

Better.

But obviously I was naive.

But don't give up AlienGirl. If we give up it just makes it easier for 'em.

Khash.

[shanti]

13. hmmmm

i wonder if they've also used street kids for these purposes? i'm speechless at the depravity of it all....:-(

[AlienGirl]

15. Street kids? Probly not...

Simply because they wouldn't be as readily available, and other stuff couldn't be as easily studied (like diet).

If they could, I'm sure they would...

Tucker

[shanti]

19. brazil

has many street kids who are regularly abused. this story is just about american kids, what about all other kids? i don't trust the pharms at all.

[gottaB]

14. I used to hum, Pfizer Loves the Little Children

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1517171.stm

Now Glaxo.

What's the world coming to?

[AlienGirl]

16. Coming to?!

It's been there a long, long time...

[gottaB]

17. I guess I had a glimmer of hope, you know

That we could improve as human beings, learn from past mistakes, approach things rationally, all that Englightment mumbojumbo.

We still have the law, I guess, but, yeah, things are looking pretty dark right about now.

[AlienGirl]

18. Enlightenment? Wasn't that around the 1700s?

Nothing gets better with humans.

Ever.

Tucker

On edit: Except the technology for killing becomes more efficient.

Edit2: And the rationalizations become more elegant, maybe.

[neverborn]

20. F*ing disgusting

They need to lock these shitheads away forever.

[w4rma]

21. Would these kids have received *any* AIDS drugs if not for these trials?

The babies didn't have anyone at all to speak for them to accept or deny these trials and without any treatment they would, without a doubt, die.

I think I would have to look at the specifics about how these trials were conducted. Such as:

Were the kids treated as if they were trying to save them, or were there experiments done to see the side effects of known incorrect dosages?

[nodehopper]

23. it's all in the article, w4rma

Any scientific method includes a placebo group, at least, where patients are NOT treated; obviously babies in the placebo group were not going to be saved

Also, did you read the article? It answers the questions you pose. They gave excessive doses to babies as young as 4 to see what the long-term effects were.

[w4rma]

25. Scanned through the article enough to believe these were immorally run.

This is some sick crap, imho.

[tlcandie]

22. Will the anti-abortionists jump on this train to prosecute/jail

these people?! So putting children up for adoption or leaving them with an orphanage is much better than an abortion because....

OH, I get it they can live and have somewhat of a life while being slowly tortured to death by those who care not for anything or anyone except lining their pockets! But, that's okay because they weren't killed before they had to experience this vile world!!

:puke:

[burrowowl]

24. Sounds like Nazi medical reseach

and U$ research on syphillis on Blacks in the 30's and present U$ research on people in poor countries.
Why am I not surprised.