UK Inquiry into HIV-Infected Blood Products to Highlight Bayer and US Pharma Companies' Involvement

Bayer and other US companies are expected to be criticised for their role in supplying Hepatitis & HIV-infected blood products to the UK in the 1970s and 1980s.

LONDON, UK, March 16, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The UK's Infected Blood Inquiry will unveil its final report on May 20, 2024, at Central Hall, Westminster, London. Chaired by former high court judge Sir Brian Langstaff, the Inquiry's findings are anticipated to lay bare the catastrophic failings of US pharmaceutical companies and government bodies in one of the world's biggest-ever health scandals.

Originally announced by the then Prime Minister in 2017, the Inquiry has spent years investigating how blood products infected men, women and children with viruses in the 1970s and 1980s.

For over six decades, the infected blood scandal has loomed over the UK, a dark chapter in medical history marked by the widespread distribution of HIV and Hepatitis C-infected blood products, particularly 'Factor VIII'.

Blood plasma, used to manufacture Factor VIII, was sourced from high-risk populations, including prisoners and individuals from third-world countries. Compounding the dangers was a devastating failure to virally inactivate the products through a heat-treatment step, resulting in catastrophic consequences for recipients.

Companies involved in the infected blood scandal include Bayer, Armour (a subsidiary of Revlon Healthcare), Baxter, Abbott Laboratories, and Alpha Therapeutics.

Sir Brian Langstaff's poignant remarks earlier this year highlight the urgency of the situation: "No-one should be in any doubt about the serious nature of the failings... that have led to catastrophic loss of life and compounded suffering." The Inquiry's call for the immediate establishment of a compensation scheme underscores the dire need for restitution and justice for the victims and their families.

With victims dying every four days on average, the demand for swift compensation across British parliament is widespread, with a majority voting for the establishment of a compensation scheme in December last year.

Giving evidence to the Inquiry in July last year, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "I talked about the layers of injustice, because there really have been layers of it, not just the fact that this happened to someone, but the fact that it impacted their family, the fact they were lied to for so many years about what had happened, told everything was fine, "Nothing to see here" when that clearly wasn't the case, and then when they sought answers and an inquiry they were rebuffed for many years until the Inquiry was established, and as I acknowledged the hurt and the suffering isn't just historic, it is continuing today. I acknowledge and understand all of that, and sympathise with it."

The upcoming publication of the Inquiry's report promises to shed light on the scale of failings and wrongdoing that contributed to the NHS's biggest treatment disaster. As the world watches, the UK stands on the brink of a pivotal moment in its medical and legal history, one that will hopefully pave the way for psychological healing and justice for victims.

Some 1,250 people in the UK were infected with both Hepatitis C & HIV as a result of infected blood products. At least 2,400 more were infected with Hepatitis C. Of those infected with both viruses, only some 200 remain alive, with most having died of AIDS during the 1990s.

Jason Evans is the Director of Factor 8, the UK's leading infected blood scandal campaign organisation, he said: "Our community has suffered terribly as a result of the infected blood scandal. People have endured not only the ravages of AIDS and Hepatitis as a result of corporate and government wrongdoing, but they also had to contend with a decades-long cover-up. Almost every day, I speak to someone whose child or father died as a result of this, and it is truly heartbreaking. People deserve the truth, they deserve restitution, and we have every faith that Sir Brian is going to provide the answers that many people have waited a lifetime for"

Jason Evans
Factor 8
contact@factor8scandal.uk
Visit us on social media:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube

Bayer's Involvement in the Infected Blood Scandal