GlaxoSmithKline

Gardian reports that orphans and babies as young as three months old have been used as guinea pigs in potentially dangerous medical experiments sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, an Observer investigation has revealed.
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 obtained by The Observer, 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.



British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay $750 million to settle criminal and civil complaints as a result of a whistleblower lawsuit that said the company knowingly sold tainted drugs for years, including GlaxoSmithKline mainstay drugs Avandia, Paxil and Tagamet and a contaminated baby ointment.

Altogether, GlaxoSmithKline sold 20 drugs made at a GlaxoSmithKline plant in Cidra, Puerto Rico according to court papers filed in Boston federal court under the U.S. False Claims Act. The whistleblower's lawsuit was originally filed against GlaxoSmithKline in 2004. It alleged the company submitted false claims to government health programs: drugs manufactured at the plant weren't safe and effective, and thus shouldn't have been covered by government programs.