Orphans used for HIV trials

              NEW YORK: GlaxoSmithKline embroiled in scandal in which
              babies and children were allegedly used as `laboratory
              animals' 

              ORPHANS and babies as young as three months old have
              been used as guinea pigs in potentially dangerous medical
              experiments sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. 

              British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline is embroiled in the
              scandal. The firm sponsored experiments on the children
              from Incarnation Children's Centre, a New York care home
              that specialises in treating HIV sufferers and is run by
              Catholic charities. 

              The children had either been infected with HIV or born to
              HIV-positive mothers. Their parents were dead, untraceable
              or deemed unfit to look after them. 

              According to documents, Glaxo has sponsored at least four
              medical trials since 1995 using Hispanic and black children
              at Incarnation. 

              The documents give details of all clinical trials in the US
              and reveal the experiments sponsored by Glaxo were
              designed to test the `safety and tolerance' of Aids
              medications, some of which have potentially dangerous side
              effects. Glaxo manufactures a number of drugs designed to
              treat HIV, including AZT. 

              Normally trials on children would require parental consent
              but, as the infants are in care, New York's authorities hold
              that role. 

              The city health department has launched an investigation
              into claims that more than 100 children at Incarnation were
              used in 36 experiments - at least four co-sponsored by
              Glaxo. 

              Some of these trials were designed to test the `toxicity' of
              Aids medications. One involved giving children as young as
              four a high-dosage cocktail of seven drugs at one time.
              Another looked at the reaction in six-month-old babies to a
              double dose of measles vaccine. 

              Most experiments were funded by federal agencies like the
              National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Until
              now Glaxo's role had not emerged. In 1997 an experiment
              co-sponsored by Glaxo used children from Incarnation to
              `obtain tolerance, safety and pharmacokinetic' data for
              Herpes drugs. In a more recent experiment, the children
              were used to test AZT. A third experiment sponsored by
              Glaxo and US drug firm Pfizer investigated the `long-term
              safety' of anti-bacterial drugs on three-month-old babies.

source kaumudi