Monkey Virus SV40 still in polio vaccine

[Guest guest]

Who knew what when - Kops

Monkey Virus SV40 still in polio vaccine

http://www.sv40cancer.com/whoknew.asp

Between 1961 and 1978, Lederle, a leading vaccine manufacturer,

controlled between 70 to 80 percent of the oral polio vaccine market.

Its product was known as " Orimune " . From 1978 until 2000 (the year

the United States prohibited the sale of the oral polio vaccine),

that company had 100% of the American market for oral polio vaccine.

It has claimed that it distributed over 650 million doses in the

United States alone since its licensure.

At the conference of the United States of America, Department of

Health & Human Services, held on Monday, January 2, 1997 entitled

CBER-NCI-NICHD-NIP-NVPO SIMIAN VIRUS 40 (SV40): A POSSIBLE HUMAN

POLYOMAVIRUS WORKSHOP, representatives of Lederle assured the

assembly that all oral polio vaccine in the United States

manufactured by that company was SV40 free and that it had prepared

the vaccine in green monkey kidney cells that do not harbor the SV40

virus. To read the paper in its entirety click

here. http://www.sv40cancer.com/ledpaper.asp

Internal Documents obtained by SV40 Cancer tell a differently story.

Confidential Memorandum dated March 14, 1979

http://www.sv40cancer.com/doc1.asp

http://www.sv40cancer.com/docimages/doc1a.gif

http://www.sv40cancer.com/docimages/doc1b.gif

It is admitted in internal memorandum that Lederle did not test all

the original seeds. Furthermore, they felt that if the progeny seeds

were free of any extraneous agents then one can presume the parent

seeds were satisfactory. However, in an interoffice correspondence

Interoffice Correspondence dated November 8, 1961

http://www.sv40cancer.com/doc2.asp

obtained by SV40 Cancer we see that the progeny seeds did contain

SV40 thereby disqualifying the validity of the original seeds.

Nevertheless, Lederle still released their product to the American

Public. (Please refer to the highlighted sections of the

document)

http://www.sv40cancer.com/doc2.asp

http://www.sv40cancer.com/docimages/doc2.gif

Although three of the monovalent pools (Lot Numbers 114, 216, and

317) used by Lederle contained SV40 at the PCB-2 level, the lots

still passed and were released to the unsuspecting Public.

THE PAPER TRAIL

Our Correspondence with The Department of Health and Human Services

in Regard to SV40 Cancer

http://www.sv40cancer.com/Cor1.asp

**************

http://www.mesothel.com/pages/sv40_vac_pag.htm

Legal Documents Raise Question of Whether Polio Vaccines Remained Tainted

With SV40 After 1961, Reports

Tuesday December 12, 2000 7:17 pm Eastern Time

Press Release

SOURCE: Publishing

WEST CHESTER, Pa., Dec. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The author of a paper set

to appear later this month in a cancer research journal says there is

reason to doubt claims that oral polio vaccines distributed in recent

decades were free of simian virus 40 (SV40), Publishing reports.

Philadelphia Attorney Stanley P. Kops writes in an upcoming issue of

Anticancer Research that legal testimony and internal documents from

at least one drug maker should cause researchers to question whether

oral polio vaccine lots manufactured since the early 1960s were

contaminated with the monkey virus.

Following reports in the late 1950s that polio vaccines were

producing tumors in laboratory hamsters, the U.S. Government required

that all seeds used to manufacture the vaccines be screened for SV40

and other microbial agents it thought might be causing the tumors.

Kops says that despite passage of the federal mandate in 1961,

neither the FDA nor manufacturer Wyeth-Lederle has been able to show

for certain that adequate steps were taken to eliminate SV40 from all

stages of the manufacturing process, which involved passing the polio

virus through monkey kidney tissue.

" Whether SV40 was removed from Sabin Oral Polio Virus strains remains

a serious and unanswered question,'' writes Kops, who has represented

several plaintiffs in polio vaccine products liability cases.

According to Kops, Lederle told national health officials during a

1997 conference in Bethesda, Md., that all of the master viral

strains used to manufacture its oral polio vaccines after 1961 were

tested and screened for SV40. Manufacturers are required by law to

keep records of screening results.

However, Kops says he has reviewed internal Lederle memos indicating

that three out of the first 15 vaccine pools Lederle used to secure

licenses for two types of oral polio vaccine -- its monovalent and

trivalent doses -- may have contained SV40.

All three pools were used to produce vaccines commercially sold for

several years after the licenses were secured in 1962 and 1963, Kops

says. The attorney adds that according to the internal memo, a

high-ranking federal health official was aware of the possible SV40

contamination.

Kops also references the 1998 deposition of then-Lederle Vice

President Dr. Ritchey, who was questioned during the course of a

pending products liability lawsuit. According to Kops, Richey

testified that Lederle's parent company, American Cyanamid, could not

determine that it tested all polio vaccine seeds and virus strains

for SV40 because Lederle didn't possess protocols for all such materials.

" The import of this testimony and the referenced Lederle internal

documents challenge the conclusions previously advanced in scientific

journals that people born after 1963 who tested positive for SV40

either became contaminated as a result of human-to-human contact, or

of placental transference,'' Kops' paper says.

Exactly how and when SV40 was introduced into human populations --

especially those inoculated since the government's 1961 mandate --

has stymied researchers for years.

Kops notes that determining the accuracy of Lederle's screening

results is of particular importance because scientists recently

showed for the first time that, at the cellular level, SV40 plays a

role in initiating mesothelioma, a rare cancer that kills between

2,500 and 3,000 people annually.

Mesothelioma is generally attributed to asbestos exposure. However,

researchers have found that as many as 80 percent of certain

mesotheliomas harbor evidence of SV40's presence, which some believe

plays a role in causing the almost always fatal tumor.

" The scientific literature indicates that mesothelioma can be

initiated, promoted, and/or accelerated by a combination of various

factors including SV40,'' the paper says. " This breakthrough in

scientific research now requires a complete appraisal of whether the

oral vaccine used in the United States from 1961 until 2000 could

have been a contributing cause.''

Until it can be shown by Lederle or the FDA that the process used to

manufacture the oral polio vaccine after 1961 was completely

SV40-free, the scientific community is impeded in its epidemiologic

and oncologic analysis and discussion of the role, if any, SV40 plays

in tumor processes, Kops asserts.

Officials at Wyeth-Lederle did not return phone messages seeking comment.

Publishing is the publisher of Columns-Asbestos, a

national monthly magazine that covers asbestos-related disease

litigation and recent scientific developments in the SV40 debate.

In-depth coverage of the Anticancer Research article will appear in

the January 2001 issue. For more information, call (800) 496-4319, or

log onto <http://www.harrismartin.com>www.harrismartin.com .

Contact: Jeff Andrus, Editorial Director, Publishing,

800-496-4319, or <mailto:jandrus@...>jandrus@....

SOURCE: Publishing

** POSTED DECEMBER 13, 2000 **