Bayer settles multi-million over HIV tainted blood

[Guest guest]

http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/760/9/

January 27, 2011

Bayer Settles Multi-Million With Hemophiliacs Over HIV Tainted Blood

The Coalition Against Bayer pharmaceuticals (CBG) announces that Bayer and

Baxter settled a mulit-million dollar compensation suit with hemophiliacs in

22 countries who were victims, infected with HIV or hepatitis C having been

infused with tainted blood plasma products in the 1980s. In 2003, The New

York Times reported that a division of Bayer pharmaceutical knowingly

continued to sell its AIDS infected blood product to countries in Asia and

Latin America to get rid of inventory: " the company hoped to preserve the

profit margin from 'several large fixed-price contracts. " The Bayer-Baxter

settlement prohibits the victims and their lawyers from speaking about the

arrangement. Philipp Mimkes from the Coalition (CBG) welcomes the

settlement, but asks: “why is BAYER concealing the payments? Why are the

media not able to report on this precedent? It is outrageous that the

companies who knowingly infected thousands of haemophiliacs are blackmailing

the victims not to talk about this important development!”

Read article on the website of the Alliance for Human Research Protection

(USA)

Comment: We suspect some might argue this issue is one of many aspects of

its history that Bayer would perhaps prefer not to be publicized. During the

German Nazi regime, Bayer was a member of the IG Farben Cartel that, in

conducting forced medical experiments upon concentration camp inmates,

showed total disregard for human life and human values. In 1948, at the

Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, directors of IG Farben were sentenced for

plunder, slavery, mass murder and other crimes against humanity. One of the

convicted war criminals at Nuremberg was Fritz ter Meer. A member of the IG

Farben executive committee between 1925 and 1945 who had responsibility for

the construction and operation of the IG Farben factory at the Auschwitz

concentration camp, ter Meer was condemned by the Nuremberg court to seven

years imprisonment. Unbelievably, however, despite his appalling crimes, he

was released after serving only two years. In 1956, despite knowing that he

was a convicted war criminal, Bayer appointed ter Meer as chairman of its

supervisory board, a post he went on to hold for 8 years.

[Guest guest]

http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/760/9/

January 27, 2011

Bayer Settles Multi-Million With Hemophiliacs Over HIV Tainted Blood

The Coalition Against Bayer pharmaceuticals (CBG) announces that Bayer and

Baxter settled a mulit-million dollar compensation suit with hemophiliacs in

22 countries who were victims, infected with HIV or hepatitis C having been

infused with tainted blood plasma products in the 1980s. In 2003, The New

York Times reported that a division of Bayer pharmaceutical knowingly

continued to sell its AIDS infected blood product to countries in Asia and

Latin America to get rid of inventory: " the company hoped to preserve the

profit margin from 'several large fixed-price contracts. " The Bayer-Baxter

settlement prohibits the victims and their lawyers from speaking about the

arrangement. Philipp Mimkes from the Coalition (CBG) welcomes the

settlement, but asks: “why is BAYER concealing the payments? Why are the

media not able to report on this precedent? It is outrageous that the

companies who knowingly infected thousands of haemophiliacs are blackmailing

the victims not to talk about this important development!”

Read article on the website of the Alliance for Human Research Protection

(USA)

Comment: We suspect some might argue this issue is one of many aspects of

its history that Bayer would perhaps prefer not to be publicized. During the

German Nazi regime, Bayer was a member of the IG Farben Cartel that, in

conducting forced medical experiments upon concentration camp inmates,

showed total disregard for human life and human values. In 1948, at the

Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, directors of IG Farben were sentenced for

plunder, slavery, mass murder and other crimes against humanity. One of the

convicted war criminals at Nuremberg was Fritz ter Meer. A member of the IG

Farben executive committee between 1925 and 1945 who had responsibility for

the construction and operation of the IG Farben factory at the Auschwitz

concentration camp, ter Meer was condemned by the Nuremberg court to seven

years imprisonment. Unbelievably, however, despite his appalling crimes, he

was released after serving only two years. In 1956, despite knowing that he

was a convicted war criminal, Bayer appointed ter Meer as chairman of its

supervisory board, a post he went on to hold for 8 years.