Glaxo smithkline killing babies in third world countries

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Poor Families Pressed Into Vaccine Trials by Drug Companies; 12

Babies Die

by Gutierrez, staff writer

(NaturalNews) Major pharmaceutical company GlaxoKline has been

accused of pressuring poor Third World parents into enrolling their

children in experimental drug trials that have led to the deaths of

at least 12 infants.

The company is currently testing an experimental pneumonia vaccine on

children under the age of one in Argentina, Colombia and Panama.

According to the Argentine Federation of Health Professionals

(Feprosa), poor Argentinean parents have been " pressured and forced

into signing consent forms. "

" In most cases these are underprivileged individuals, many of them

unable to read or write, who are pressured into including their

children, " said Palomares of Fesprosa.

" This occurs without any type of state control [and] does not comply

with minimum ethical requirements, " the federation said.

At least 12 Argentinean babies enrolled in the study have died in the

past year.

In response to be criticism, Glaxo said its strict safety protocols

are monitored by an independent committee, and that no one is forced

to participate in the program.

" Enrollment in the trial is on a voluntary basis and trial

participants are free to withdraw at any time, " the company said.

But according to ta Ovejero, great aunt of one of the children

who died, " A lot of people want to leave the protocol but aren't

allowed; they force them to continue under the threat that if they

leave they won't receive any other vaccine. "

The vaccine trial has also drawn accusations of corruption: The

trials in the Argentinean province of Santiago del Estero were

authorized under provincial Health Minister ,

brother of the lead researcher in the study.

Critics such as Ana Marchese, a pediatrician at the Santiago

del Estero children's hospital where the study is taking place,

accuse Glaxo of using Third World children as guinea pigs.

" Because they can't experiment in Europe or the United States, they

come to do it in third-world countries, " she said.