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ACT UP indicted Merck for its AIDS profiteering with its protease inhibitor Crixivan.
But the last Golden Urn Award went to:
for knowingly selling HIV-tainted Blood to Hemphiliacs, murdering thousands.
Bayer Pharmaceuticalsmurdered thousands of Hemophiliacs when it knowingly sold tainted blood products to patients in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil, the Phillipines, and other countries. The company now sells HIV drugs like IVIG and Mycelex troche tablets to the very people they infected. According to reports, Bayer has also formed a mult-million dollar joint venture with the Red Cross to build a blood products factory in Canada.
Bayer is part of a group of blood products companies that are currently being sued by hemophiliacs in several countries. Canadian hemophiliacs who were infected by tainted blood products were awarded approximately $125,000 each as compensation for HIV infection. American hemophiliacs are currently considering an offer of $60,000-$100,000 per person.
"These blood products companies are getting away with murder," commented ACT UP Golden Gate's Bill Thorne. "The financial settlements these companies are paying People with AIDS are only a fraction of the price the patients are paying every year for blood products from the same companies that infected them." Other companies known to have sold tainted blood products include Alpha Therapeutics, Baxter, and Centeon.
"This is the worst medically-induced tragedy in the history of the United States," commented Terry Stogdell, an HIV+ hemophiliac. "The company also refuses to acknowledge the danger of other blood-born viruses. Ninety-eight percent of Hemophiliacs have hepetatis, and most have been exposed to arthritis-inducing parvo virus."
Although there were 10,000 US Hemophiliacs infected with HIV in 1985, 4,000 have died, not including their partners and children. The company still sells clotting factor to hemophiliacs. Clotting factor, for one person costs between Sl - $6 per unit, or as much as $360,000 per person per year. Due to this fact, most people with Hemophila are living in poverty. Hemophiliacs maintain that Bayer keeps the price high by creating artificial shortages. "Bayer has stopped manufacturing clotting factor to drive up their prices," commented Stogdell. The company is expected to recommence manufacturing in early Fall, 1996, once supplies have dwindled.
ACT UP DEMANDS that the Krever commission immediately release the names of the people to blame for the tainted blood tragedy that killed so many.
