GlaxoSmithKline and Kids again!

This story seems to have been forgotten about.... I ain't forgot Glaxo


Russian prosecutors scrutinize GSK vaccine trial

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhuanet) -- British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) PLC is under criminal investigation by Russian prosecutors looking into vaccine trials that were allegedly conducted on children without parents' permission, according to authorities.

The Prosecutor General's office said in a statement dated Monday and posted on its website Friday investigators began the probe at a hospital in Volgograd, about 550 miles southeast of Moscow, after several children who received the vaccines fell ill and parents raised questions.

Prosecutors said the deputy director of the hospital had been paid 50,000 U.S. dollars to participate in the trials and that such tests on minors were illegal in Russia. They also said parents had been told the vaccines were humanitarian aid

GlaxoSmithKline officials could not be immediately reached for comment, but Michael Crow, the head of GSK's Russian operations, told Dow Jones Newswires the allegations were unsubstantiated and untrue.

"All of our trials undergo rigorous scrutiny and this study had been fully authorized by all the necessary Russian agencies," he said.

More than 100 children between the ages of one and two were given the vaccines during the trails, which have since been halted, the statement said.

Crow said the tests began in 2005 as part of a wider study of pediatric vaccines on 5,700 children across Europe. Of those, 1,000 were in Russia and 100 participated in the study in Volgograd, he said. The vaccines were Varilrix, which is for chickenpox, Priorix, which is for mumps, measles and rubella and Priorix Tetra, which would treat all four diseases.