The Cellar - Bayer messed-up, then the US

Quote:

Bayer messed-up, then the US

From the Dept of Health: http://www.doh.gov.za/docs/news/2003/nz0522a.html

(This was published May 22, 2003)

Quote:

A division of the pharmaceutical giant Bayer in the 1980s sold a medicine to Asia and Latin America that carried a high risk of transmitting AIDS while it was selling a new, safer product in the west, The New York Times said Thursday.

Cutter Biological wanted to avoid being stuck with large stores of a product that was becoming increasingly unmarketable in the United States and Europe, according to internal company documents obtained by the daily.
~ snip ~ "Decisions made nearly two decades ago were based on the best scientific information of the time and were consistent with the regulations in place," the Bayer statement said." The New York Times said it was practically impossible to determine how many hemophiliacs in Latin America and Asia were affected by the company's sale of Factor VIII concentrate after February 1984 (when the new product came out).

However, in Hong Kong and Taiwan alone, more than 100 hemophiliacs were infected with the HIV virus after using Factor VIII, and many since have died, according to records and interviews obtained by the paper.

Cutter also continued to sell the older product after February 1984 in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and Argentina, the daily added.

In the early 1980s, when the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was first detected, there was no screening test for the HIV virus to prevent it from contaminating blood products. Companies later developed a heat treatment for plasma products to kill off the HIV virus.

While we all know that the bottom line is what is most important to all of these big companies, we have to keep in mind that this was over 20 years ago and we didn't know then what we know now . . .

Although, it is very scary that drug companies do things without further exploration, even though they know something adverse is going on . . .

I had a friend who was in quality control for a major drug company. The almighty dollar really does drive just how much testing they'll do on a given drug.