Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was sentenced to pay 400,000 pesos for testing a vaccine in Argentina that killed 14 children.
The case broke out after the publication of a report by the National Administration of Medicine, Food and Technology which denounced the wrongdoing deriving from the application of the protocol that the GSK had devised for Argentine public hospitals.
The trial involved over 15,000 children, even under one year of age in various Argentine cities, and 14 thousands of these children died. Some doctors denounced the fact that the majority of children from the poorest and illiterate families were involved. Once the consent of the families was obtained, in the majority of cases under pressure and false reassurances, the children were subjected to the administration of the experimental vaccine.
Behind the atrocious death of these innocent people lurks the shadow of corruption and malfeasance but above all that irresponsible part of medicine and experimentation that infringes the rules of ethics and gives no value to human life.
Posted on January 4th, 2012 by Valentina Polite
Children.guidone.it
Unwitting human guinea pigs in India, to enrich hospitals
Unwitting guinea pigs – In India, medicines are distributed free of charge to the sick, but it is not a question of the social avant-garde or of voluntary work in favor of the poorest. These drugs are in fact part of clinical trials that transform patients into guinea pigs without their knowledge. Behind the warnings of "side effects" are hidden events that can even cause the death of the guinea pigs. So sick people die from medicines that are actually supposed to cure them. "The reform of the rules for clinical trials has caused a surge in the number of citizens who undergo such a practice" writes the Washington Post, and often with some doubts about the reality of patient consents.
The deception of the doctors – The most famous case is that of Sharad Geete, who saw his wife die of Alzheimer's due to drugs that later turned out to be experimental. The doctor had proposed them as safe drugs that would soon be launched by a foreign pharmaceutical company and the couple trusted. After the woman's death, the autopsy showed that the causes of that unexpected death had been precisely the drugs recommended by the doctor.
