- Letter from January 1981 shows hospital was offered £8,500 to buy US plasma
Pharmaceutical companies have been accused of bribing NHS doctors to use infected blood products that gave people HIV and hepatitis C in the 1970s and 1980s.
NHS hospitals were offered money to buy blood products from US pharma giants, who were known to have paid high-risk donors for their plasma, the Telegraph has reported.
Around 1,250 people with haemophilia were infected with HIV and another 5,000 contracted hepititis C after they were given the blood-clotting drug Factor VIII.
Now a letter dated from January 1981 reveals that St Thomas’ Hospital in London was offered £8,500 (around £41,000 today) in rebates for buying Factor VIII made in the US.
The letter – which has been published in the book The Poison Line by Cara McGoogan – shows that doctors were offered to purchase four million units of Factor VIII produced by Bayer and Baxter Healthcare in return for monetey incentives.
Jason Evans, director of the campaign group Factor 8, told the Telegraph: ‘Doctors were literally offered cash to use dangerous products.
‘In my opinion, on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies, this basically amounts to bribery.’
The haemophilia centre at St Thomas’ – run by Dr Geoffrey Savidge – was known to have some of the highest rates of Factor VIII use per patient in the UK, according to Professor Edward Tuddenham.
The leading haematologist and emeritus professor at the Royal Free in London said: ‘Dr Savidge was known for years for using American concentrate. He had very well-equipped laboratories.’
Although Dr Savidge died in 2011, an earlier inquiry in 2007, found that ‘he used almost exclusively commercial products but he shouldn’t have done.’
Around 3,000 people died due to the infected blood scandal in the 1970s and 1980s which has been dubbed the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history.
The Infected Blood Inquiry is expected to produce its final report on the mistakes that led to the deaths on May 20 – with an emphasis placed on the role of big pharma.
Factor VIII was a drug invented in the 1960s to treat haemophilia – a genetic bleeding disorder that prevents people’s blood from clotting.
Although it was illegal in the UK to pay people to donate blood, in the US pharmaceutical giants offered high risk donors such as gay men and drug users money for their plasma.
As early as 1974, the UK was advised not to import US blood products as they were more likely to carry hepatitis.
Then a court testimony from 1999, shows that by 1983 Factor VIII manufactured in the US was deemed ‘highly likely’ to contain HIV.
Nevertheless, doctors continued to believe that the benefits associated with using Factor VIII outweighed the risks.
A spokesperson for Bayer said that the offer of commerical offers associated with the supply of medicines was ‘routine practice in the early 1980s and continues today’.
They said they are ‘truly sorry’ that the ‘tragic situation’ occurred with a spokesperson for Baxter adding that ‘they sympathise with anyone impacted by infected blood in the 1970s and 1980s’.
MailOnline has contacted Baxter and Bayer for further comment.
The allegations that doctors were ‘bribed’ comes as earlier this month MPs heard that the NHS had ‘very serious criminal and ethical issues’ to answer over reports that children were ‘experimented on’ using infected blood products.
Cabinet Office minister John Glen said reports on medical trials using infected blood products on children in the 1970s and 1980s demonstrate the ‘unimaginable suffering of all those impacted by this dreadful scandal’.
Reports had previously revealed that children as young as three were used as ‘guinea pigs’ in clinical trials to test wether contaminated blood products were safe to use.
Many of these trials were carried out on children without their parent’s knowledge, while a majority of those who took part are now dead.
Dame Diana Johnson, Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull North, said the BBC had produced ‘shocking evidence’ about children ‘being experimented on’ without their parents’ consent.
She told the Commons: ‘These disturbing revelations raise very serious criminal and ethical issues for the NHS and the medical profession – possibly breaches of the 1947 Nuremberg Code.’
The Nuremberg Code outlines ethical research principles for human experimentation, including stressing the importance of consent.
Sarah Carter is a health and wellness expert residing in the UK. With a background in healthcare, she offers evidence-based advice on fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, promoting healthier living for readers.
