Big Pharma experiments on babies

GlaxoSmithKline has just dropped one rung lower on the ladder to hell, in my ever so humble opinion. Who ever heard of something as unethical as using experimental drugs on infants?

Does it matter that the trials are taking place in Africa-on babies that have a good chance of dying anyway? No, of course it doesn't.

As screwed up as our government might be, there are a few things it does right. Protecting our children from this sort of cruel and unusual punishment is one of them. Unfortunately, the countries in Africa have no such law. And with one person dying every 30 seconds from malaria, the people there are desperate enough to try anything.

A clinical trial just completed in Mozambique has cleared the way for large-scale testing on the continent. Here are the details of the trial:

Researchers gave the experimental vaccine to 214 infants between 10 and 18 weeks old. Over the three-month period after the treatment, new infections were reduced by 65 percent. Fast-forward six months, and the numbers weren't quite so promising. At six months out, there was only a 35 percent reduction in clinical illnesses.

Forgive me if I'm not jumping for joy.

So what's in it for Glaxo? Good publicity. Oh, and millions upon billions of dollars.

Glaxo knows full well that developing a vaccine for a virus that continues to plague third- world countries (and is always knocking on the doorstep of our own…) would bring in some serious dough. Why else would the pharmaceutical giant willingly fork over $300 million developing a malaria vaccine?

Glaxo promises to sell the vaccine at a "low price" to developing countries once it's been approved. So how do they plan to capitalize on this "gem" of a vaccine? Maybe they're hoping malaria will make a comeback in developed nations. Or maybe they'll HELP malaria make a comeback in developed nations.

Before Tom Cruise busied himself with jumping on couches and crusading against postpartum drugs, he was in a little move called Mission Impossible 2. The premise: A greedy pharmaceutical company planned to release a "super virus," then make billions from selling the antidote.

Don't think it couldn't happen in the real world. Never underestimate the power of money.

The most frustrating part of this whole tragedy-from the malaria epidemic itself to using infants as experimental guinea pigs-is that none of it is necessary.

If the world weren't so intent on banning the only solution out there that has proven to safely and effectively eliminate malaria at the root of the problem, then we wouldn't be in this mess.

I know I talk about DDT a lot. But with more than a million people dying of malaria every year, I'm not about to stop pushing the very thing I KNOW would put an end to it all.

Did you know that yellow fever (also spread by mosquitoes) used to be a serious problem in Panama? But instead of attacking the disease spread by the mosquito, they attacked the mosquito itself-and eradicated the problem. What a novel idea.

Only prevention will stop malaria. And the only known preventive that has proven to be effective is DDT.