Volgograd Vaccine Clinical Trials Spark Criminal Investigation

British pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline has been named a party in a criminal investigation in Volgograd because of the use of their vaccines in a clinical trial. Chicken pox, measles and rubella vaccines were given to 100 young Russian girls and boys whom have shown disturbing symptoms since they got the vaccines.

Apparently the parents did not know that their babies were involved in a trial, while GlaxoSmithKline and the clinic which gave the vaccines said they were notified. According to Russian law minors cannot be included in vaccine trials and independent medical clinics are not allowed to run clinical trials. A regional court has ordered the Independent Clinical Hospital to stop the trials as of last week. The clinic has filed an appeal.

The parents of the children involved claim that the doctors at the clinic told them they should follow the full schedule of vaccines without giving them warning of possible side effects. The clinic also offered a free taxi service to the participants.

A spokesperson for the Volgograd prosecutor’s office has said that GlaxoSmithKline would most likely not be charged with any wrong doing. The clinic would be held responsible since they had been contracted to perform the trials. The spokesperson did say that future action against the company could be possible. The real blame could lay with the federal ethics committee that approved the trials.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 at 11:25 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.