Bayer - The great HIV cover-up

OK, so this may be old news (broke in 2006) but I have only just stumbled across the story and I am so utter disgusted by the details I was just compelled to write about it.

So this is the long and short of the story.

In 2006 it was discovered from released documents that Bayer sells a HIV-Infected Drug in Latin America, Europe and Asia.

The documents show that the drug company sold millions of dollars worth of Factor VIII concentrate (an injectable blood clotting drug) intended for hemophiliacs to some Asian, Latin American, and European countries in the mid-1980s even though they KNEW that it was tainted with the HIV virus.

Bayer were aware of the fact that the drug was tainted and allegedly told the FDA to keep things under wraps while they made a profit off a drug that infected its patients.

You can watch the MSNBC news report on the story below:



If these allegations are true, then both Bayer and the FDA are guilty of the infection and subsequent deaths of 1000's of haemophiliacs worldwide. It is also alleged that FDA regulators helped to keep the continued sales hidden, asking the company that the problem be ''quietly solved without alerting the Congress, the medical community and the public,'' all this according to the minutes of a 1985 meeting.

Yet despite these allegations, no Bayer executives ever faced arrest or prosecution in the United States. A Bayer representative had this to say: “Bayer behaved responsibly, ethically and humanely… [and its actions] were consistent with regulations.” Mmmm! Go figure!

Here's what gets me, I had a choice in my HIV infection. As I have blogged previously. I took the risks and have paid the price. However the haemophiliacs affected by this did not have a choice! The Factor VIII was their lifeline, a drug that would help their condition, to go some way to live a normal life. How many would have willing taken the medication if they knew that they would be trading one condition for another disease that (at the time) would prove to be terminal? A condition that, without their knowledge would not only affect them but their loved ones too via secondary infection.

I find it totally off the scale that, if true, no one from either Bayer or the FDA have ever faced any charges with respect to this blatant display of corporate greed and ignorance.