African Babies As Guinea Pigs? Malaria, Bill Gate$, Big Drug$ and Big Buck$
by Thomas C. Mountain
When
it comes to the new malaria vaccine developed by Glaxo, Smith and Kline
(GSK) now being tested on infants in the east African country of
Tanzania I will let the words of an industry insider tell it best..
"There
is not much profit to be made by big pharma from a highly effective
malaria vaccine of practical use for African sufferers...they [Big
Drug$) are fiendishly clever at exploiting any and all opportunities to
reap big benefits."
"The
poorly performing malaria vaccine RTS,S, created by GSK with a healthy
infusion of funds from the Gates Foundation, is being tested in Phase
III trials in Africa now. Including many thousands of African
infants."
"will not profit from RTS,S. However, RTS,S is injected along with a new GSK adjuvant called AS01."
"will make vast sums from the new adjuvant, the testing of which is
being piggybacked on their altruistic malaria vaccine (which,
incidentally, is virtually entirely ineffective without AS01)."
"Interestingly,
RTS,S (or should I say, AS01) testing in African infants began before
AS01 trials in children were permitted in the United States."
"physician-scientists also held positions of significance in the Gates
Foundation...conflict-of-interest issues not withstanding."
So
the Gate$ Foundation is giving Big Buck$ ($400 million and counting) to
Big Drug$/G$K to develop a vaccine against Africa’s number one killer,
malaria.
The
new not-for-profit malaria vaccine is "virtually entirely
ineffective" without another medicine, whose patent is owned by G$K,
resulting in $billions of African blood money filling the coffers of Big
Drug$, once again.
Never
mind Big Drug$/G$K had its reps at the Gate$ Foundation and Big Buck$
in the form of tax deductible grants are being shelled out to Big
Drug$/G$K.
The
really nasty thing about all this is the fact that, once again, Big
Drug$ tests new drugs on African babies before any such permission is
granted to do so on American babies.
The
question that remains unanswered is does Bill Gates multibillion dollar
investment portfolio include investments in GSK? All the investment
portfolio advisers I asked about this seem to think he does. Energy and
Pharmaceuticals are the two most profitable industries in the world and
GSK is one of the most profitable drug companies. Only Bill Gates and
his investment advisors really know but common sense indicates that when
it comes to malaria, Bill Gate$, Big Drug$ and Big Buck$ is what is in
the drivers seat.
And
all the while one African country, Eritrea, has reduced malaria
mortality by 80% over the last decade, a fact unknown to the supposedly
altruistic, or more aptly, incestuous, vaccine industry.
Thomas
C. Mountain is the only independent western journalist in the Horn of
Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached
at thomascmountain at yahoo dot com.
