Zantac Lawsuit


Researching drug company and regulatory malfeasance for over 16 years
Humanist, humorist
Showing posts with label Douglas De Coninck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Douglas De Coninck. Show all posts

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Did the Sierre Bus Driver Have a Pre-Disposition to Seroxat?





The bus crash in Sierre is in the news again, at least it is in Holland.

The Telegraf's Jolande van der Graaf has recently highlighted that the parents of the Sierre bus crash victims (22 children) have wrote a letter to Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte,  Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel and other various members of parliament. The letter, penned by Olga Leclercq, whose daughter tragically lost her life, is calling for the release of the bus driver's blood samples to determine once and for all whether or not he (Geert Michels) had a poor tolerance to Seroxat. This can be achieved through DNA testing and Leclercq has already employed the services of Independent Forensic Services, Hulshorst, Netherlands to carry out these tests.

Sadly, for the parents of the 22 children who perished, they need to persuade the Swiss authorities to release sample of Michels blood, hence the letter requesting the support of the Dutch and Belgian Prime Ministers.

It's become widely known that Seroxat (paroxetine), marketed in the US as Paxil, can cause suicidal thinking in some people who take it, it has also been proven, in US Courts, that Seroxat was responsible for, not only suicide but homicide too. (Link)

Earlier this year, after briefly meeting Olga in London, I felt compelled to write to both the British and European drug regulators, namely; the MHRA and the EMA, about the involvement of Seroxat in this sad case.. In typical limp-wristed fashion both have passed the buck onto GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturers of Seroxat, and told me that "Companies marketing SSRIs and the national authorities that approved them will be aware of published reports suggesting that a product may have been linked to a tragic incident."

Journalist Douglas de Coninck, who wrote a book about the bus crash, (THE BUSRAMP IN SIERRE: 1 PILL, 28 DEAD) and who also exposed the fact that the bus driver, Geert Michels, was either on or withdrawing from Seroxat at the time of the crash, has never been approached by anyone from GlaxoSmithKline regarding his findings, which kind of makes a mockery of the statement issued to me from the EMA.

Seroxat, by the manufacturers own admission, can cause a symptom called akathisia, in a nutshell, akathisia is a disorder, induced by SSRI medications, which can cause a person to experience such intense inner restlessness that the sufferer is driven to violence and/or suicide.

Olga has kindly given me permission to publish the letter on my blog. It's been translated from Dutch to English.

Subject: Request for help in obtaining blood sample in connection with Buscrash Sierre 2012.

Lommel, Belgie,
Houten, Nederland,

1 oktober 2016

Dear Member of Parlaiment,

On the 13th of March 2012, a Belgian Touringcar drove head on against a wall in a tunnel in sierra, Switzerland. 28 people died of which 6 Dutch Children and 16 Belgian children. Many survivors are left with permanent injuries. The cause of this declared national disaster was never sufficiently investigated and therefore never found by the Swiss investigators, the case has been formally closed now.

During the investigation it became clear that the driver took Paroxetine, an SSRI-type antidepressant. A possible explanation of this crash could be that the driver was mentally seriously disrupted because of side-effects and that the crash was caused by this.

Paroxetine is known for these effects, Psychosis, Suicide, Akathisia, and violence. Some people have an above average sensitivity for these disastrous side-effects. Indications for this sensitivity can be found in a blood sample (by DNA testing).

During the forensic investigation, a blood sample was taken from the driver. This sample is still being kept by the Swiss authorities. This blood has never been tested for these effects.

For the relatives, who are united under Stichting Busramp Sierre, there is still a lot of uncertainty around the causes of this crash. To take this uncertainty away and to add information to the Paroxetine-file, it is vital to have the above mentioned blood-research take place. It is obvious that this research will have to be conducted in a professional way and in the presence of monitors who are accepted by all the parties concerned. 

For this research we have a strong preference for Independent Forensic Services, Hulshorst, Netherlands, who have a lot of experience in this field. To be able to do this The Swiss Authorities will need to be persuaded to release the driver’s blood.
  
Therefore we would like to request that you employ your influence to make a research, acceptable for all parties, of the driver’s blood possible. 

We thank you in advance for your cooperation, 

Mw. Olga Leclercq voor stichting Stichting Busramp Sierre.

Dhr. Ogé Kruijt voor Stchting Nederlands Comité voor de Rechten van de Mens.


Enkele referenties:

Stichting Busramp Sierre:
http://stichtingbusrampsierre.nl/ 

De bijsluiter van Paroxetine meldt als mogelijke bijwerking zelfmoordgedrag en agressie:
http://db.cbg-meb.nl/Bijsluiters/h28418.pdf

Studie Prescription Drugs Associated with Reports of Violence Towards Others rangschikt Paroxetine onder de medicijnen met het hoogste risico op agressie en geweld:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0015337

--

At the very least, both the Dutch and Belgian Prime Ministers should grant the parents wishes for samples of Geert Michels blood. Twenty Two children died as a result of his actions, actions that have already shown, vi an independent inquiry, that he deliberately drove the bus into a tunnel wall.

Whilst the MHRA and EMA sit shrugging their shoulders, seemingly unconcerned about 22 children dying as a result of a drug they continue to give a clean bill of health, it is, once again, left to bereaved parents to find answers.

As for GlaxoSmithKline, their history of being fruitful with the truth is a poor one - even when found guilty they appeal (as they did in the 2001 Paxil homicide/suicide case.)


I will, of course, keep readers in the loop as this story develops.

Bob Fiddaman.

Back Stories.

Did Seroxat Trigger the Fatal Sierre 2012 Bus Crash?

Sierre Bus Crash Revisited

For the Sake of the Children ~ Act Now!

What is akathisia?

Advocates Against Prescribed Akathisia

Guest Post: Let's Bring Akathisia Out of the Darkness











Monday, October 03, 2016

For the Sake of the Children ~ Act Now!




A post grabbed my attention earlier on Facebook.

The post was from Olga Leclercq, mother of 11 year-old, Eline (Pictured)

Here's Olga's post. My comments and research follow...



I lost my beautiful, sweet and lovely 11 year old daughter in March '12. 

The bus driver was withdrawing from Seroxat at that time, not gradually but just took half his original dosage in the few weeks before the crash. According to a statement in the media by his widow, he had not taken his medication that day. 

On the 13th of March '12 he drove his bus into a concrete wall in the tunnel in Sierre at 100 km/h, killing himself and 27 others. 

22 children, 4 teachers and his colleague died that evening, 24 children survived but are traumatized for life. 

She was on her way back from an 8 day school trip to Switzerland with her classmates and children from another school. 

We (a group of parents) kept asking the Swiss authorities to investigate a possible suïcide, they refused to do so repeatedly. 

The case is closed now and to the outside world it was just an accident, we hired independant forensic experts who confirmed our fears, it was a deliberate act. He had to make a few complicated steering manoeuvres to be able to end up against the wall the way he did. 

We need the truth to come out, there is no way we can raise awareness about the dangers of these drugs when horrible cases like this one are being swept under the carpet.

Journalist Douglas de Coninck wrote a book about the bus crash in (THE BUSRAMP IN SIERRE: 1 PILL, 28 DEAD) unfortunately it's in Dutch, but we will try to have it translated to English someday soon. 

Photo's: my daughter Eline, the bus drivers marriage photo (3 months before the crash, also before changing his dosage), the last 40 metres of the trajectory (done by Swiss investigators) and the cover of Douglas' book. 

The truth needs to be told, because our children still matter and we want to help save lives in the future.

...

I have wrote about the Sierre bus crash on this blog here, and here.

I've even wrote to both the British drug regulator and the European drug regulator, namely the MHRA and the EMA. Both have passed the buck. In the case of the EMA I posed the following question to them...

Now you are aware that Seroxat (paroxetine) is suspected to have played a part in the 2012 Sierre bus crash, can you tell me if information regarding the implication of Seroxat has been forwarded to GlaxoSmithKline via the EMA?

Their response was typical of a regulator devoid of any compassion and common sense...

Please also note there are robust systems in place to pick up and evaluate suspected side effects. Companies marketing SSRIs and the national authorities that approved them will be aware of published reports suggesting that a product may have been linked to a tragic incident.

In others words, we don't know if Glaxo are aware of it, but if they are they will carry out their own investigation. If Glaxo aren't aware then we, as a drug regulator, do not feel we need to bring it to their attention.

It's criminal that we have such limp-wristed regulators in place - remember, these are the people that regulate the drugs you and I take.

I've been in touch with journalist Douglas de Coninck whose own investigation implicated Seroxat - not once have GlaxoSmithKline made any attempt to learn of his findings - safe to assume then that Glaxo haven't bothered investigating the Sierre bus crash themselves.

Eline, along with 21 other children perished on that fateful day. Evidence has revealed that the bus driver, Geert Michels was either taking or withdrawing from Seroxat. Scientific evidence shows us much in this case - Michels drove deliberately into a wall. Scence also shows us that Seroxat can, for some people who take it, induce akathisia. Glaxo define akathisia (on the Seroxat patient information leaflet) as thus...

Some patients who take Seroxat develop something called akathisia, where they feel restless and feel like they can’t sit or stand still.

And that's basically it. What Glaxo fail to mention is this.

Akathisia is a disorder, induced by SSRI medications, which can cause a person to experience such intense inner restlessness that the sufferer is driven to violence and/or suicide.

Two recent posts on my blog have, collectively, amassed almost 4,000 hits in recent weeks, both cover the subject of akathisia. (1) (2)

The MHRA, EMA and GlaxoSmithKline want the investigation into the Sierre bus crash to go away - they don't want questions being asked. We owe it to the beautiful Eline to keep asking questions.


Bob Fiddaman.



(1) Advocates Against Prescribed Akathisia
(2) Guest Post: Let's Bring Akathisia Out of the Darkness


Tuesday, August 09, 2016

2012 Sierre Bus Crash - Further MHRA Correspondence







Last month I wrote to both the British and European drug regulators regarding recent evidence that has surfaced in Douglas De Coninck's book, De busramp in Sierre: 1 Pill, 28 Dead. In short, the book centres around the 2012 bus crash that happened in the Sierre Tunnel, A9 Autobahn, Valais, Switzerland and alleges that the driver, Geert Michiels, 34, was in a destructive relationship and had also been medicated with GlaxoSmithKline's Seroxat. The generic name for Seroxat is paroxetine and it is better known in the US and Canada by its brand name Paxil and in Australia and New Zealand as Aropax.

My email to both medicine regulators can be read here (Email to Medicine Regulators Regarding 2012 Sierre Bus Crash)

The MHRA have now replied. As yet I have still not received a reply from the European regulator.

The MHRA reply is below ~ My follow-up questions follow the two page MHRA letter.


Click image to enlarge.






My reply to their response...

Dear MHRA,

Thank you for your recent correspondence.

I have some follow on questions that may or may not be deemed to fall under the Freedom of Information Act. If they do, then please treat them as such.

The study you refer to in your last correspondence with me, 'Suicidality and aggression during antidepressant treatment: systematic review and meta-analyses based on clinical study reports' showed that a number of clinical study reports were used of a wide range of antidepressants, one of which was fluoxetine. These reports, according to the published paper, were obtained from European and UK drug regulators.

Q1: You claim in your letter sent to me, ref GENQ-00113734, that Sharma's findings were "consistent with the outcome of previous regulatory reviews."
Given that fluoxetine was one of the antidepressants used in the Sharma study, do you still maintain that it is a safe and effective treatment for use in adolescents?

Q2: In the third paragraph of the letter you sent me you state, "With regards to your comments on the Yellow Card Scheme, this is a national scheme that collects reports for reactions occurring in the UK and therefore we cannot complete a report based on the book reference you have provided; De busramp in Sierre: 1 Pill, 28 Dead. As part of their pharmacovigilance responsibilities however Marketing Authorisation Holders are expected to monitor medical and scientific literature which discusses potential side effects to their products and to report these to the relevant national competent authorities as appropriate."

Now that you have been made aware of the De busramp in Sierre: 1 Pill, 28 Dead book, will you, as a regulator, be making any efforts to contact the Marketing Authorisation Holders regarding the findings of the author?

Q3: In Sharma's study the authors state that they had "only partial access to appendices with no access to case report forms, the harms could not be estimated accurately."

Based on this statement, have the MHRA or the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) of the European Medicines Agency had complete access to all appendices and case report forms?

If yes, could you please forward me all appendices and case report forms that Sharma et al never had access to.

If no, can you explain how a safety review panel (MHRA or the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) of the European Medicines Agency) can make an accurate decision when appendices and case report forms are missing.



Bob Fiddaman.


Related stories.

Did Seroxat Trigger the Fatal Sierre 2012 Bus Crash?

Sierre Bus Crash Revisited

Email to Medicine Regulators Regarding 2012 Sierre Bus Crash





















Monday, July 18, 2016

Email to Medicine Regulators Regarding 2012 Sierre Bus Crash







I have just fired off the following to the British drug regulator, the MHRA and the European regulator, the EMA.

I'm anticipating a response that will show a complete lack of compassion.

--


Dear regulators,

On the 13 March 2012 a bus crashed in the Sierre Tunnel, A9 Autobahn, Valais, Switzerland killing 28, 22 of them were children. 24 others, all aged between 10 and 12, were injured, including three who were hospitalized with severe brain and chest injuries.

An enquiry into the crash proved to be inconclusive but it emerged that the driver, Geert Michiels, 34, did not apply the brakes after he mounted a mini pavement in the tunnel and drove head on into a wall.

It has also emerged that Michiels was, at the time of the crash, either taking or withdrawing from paroxetine.

More in-depth information can be found in Douglas De Coninck's book, De busramp in Sierre: 1 Pill, 28 Dead. Sadly, the book is only available in Dutch print at this present time.

My questions to you all are thus:

Do you not think enough is enough now? The internet is littered with similar stories of people killing themselves or carrying out acts of homicides whilst on psychiatric medication (prescripticide).

The Sierre bus crash is one of many such incidents.

You, as regulators, have a duty to safeguard human health so accidents such as Sierre should have, at the very least, raised red flags when you monitor news items via the internet. I know you monitor my blog so it's safe to assume you monitor many other websites when prescription medication is mentioned - or do you just monitor websites that are critical of your regulation (if you can call it that) of prescription medication?

22 children died! Does this not register with you at all?

Do you intend to investigate this matter or just add it to your database without following up?

Your yellow card reporting system, as I believe, does not take anecdotal reports when in actual fact anyone filling out a yellow card report is basically telling you something anecdotal.

On behalf of all of those who died in Sierre I would like for you or any department that may monitor the media to file a yellow card report for this crash. All evidence points to the driver having taken or withdrawing from paroxetine which, as you are ALL aware of, can cause psychotic episodes.

What is the point of having regulators who shrug their shoulders when incidents such as Sierre occur?

22 children and four adults died, many of the children were thrown from the windows of the bus, even though they were wearing seatbealts, such was the impact of the crash. Some of the children's fatal injuries were so bad that they could not, at first, be identified.

At the very least you, as regulators, should be trying or proposing laws be changed with regard to operating public vehicles whilst under the influence or withdrawing from antidepressant type medication.

The public perception of medicine regulators is one which borders on presumptions that you are limp-wristed, powerless and in the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry. One only has to look to see who the CEO of the MHRA is and who his previous employers were, ironically the same employers who market and manufacture the very same drug that has been implicated in the Sierre bus crash.

What are you going to do, are you going to continue quoting an expert meeting of SSRi's took place many years ago and they were given a clean bill of health back then or are you going to actually get your hands dirty on this and start your own investigation - if only to help those affected by this tragedy.

Sitting back and watching is cowardly - I assume many of you have children or grandchildren of your own - if anything, you owe it to them to investigate the Sierre bus crash!

I'm a blogger and have carried out my own investigation, translating the Dutch media articles into English and also making contact with the author of De busramp in Sierre: 1 Pill, 28 Dead. If a blogger can do this then you, with your financial clout (provided by the pharmaceutical industry) should be able to do it.

I fear I may be urinating in the wind here because my past experiences when meeting the MHRA has been one of total dejection in as much that the MHRA give the impression that they just don't care if SSRi's cause suicide and homicide.

Stop allowing these medications to kill the people you were put in place to protect!

Did Seroxat Trigger the Fatal Sierre 2012 Bus Crash?

Sierre Bus Crash Revisited



Sincerely,

Bob Fiddaman
Author/Blogger/Researcher





Sunday, July 17, 2016

Sierre Bus Crash Revisited







Douglas De Coninck is the author of De busramp in Sierre: 1 Pill, 28 Dead. The book centres around the 2012 bus crash that happened in the Sierre Tunnel, A9 Autobahn, Valais, Switzerland and alleges that the driver, Geert Michiels, 34, was in a destructive relationship and had also been medicated with GlaxoSmithKline's Seroxat. The generic name for Seroxat is paroxetine and it is better known in the US and Canada by its brand name Paxil and in Australia and New Zealand as Aropax.

Sadly, De busramp in Sierre: 1 Pill, 28 Dead is only available in Dutch print, something that I will be calling for to be changed as the story within is of a massive public interest regarding antidepressant medication and induced psychosis. It's a book that, I believe, needs to be widely distributed and read by the public and healthcare professionals alike.

Douglas De Coninck is an investigative journalist at De Morgen, a Belgian newspaper. He lives and works in Brussels.

Background


There were 52 on board, 28 people perished, 22 of them were children. The other 24 pupils, all aged between 10 and 12, were injured, including three who were hospitalized with severe brain and chest injuries.

A full investigation into the crash was carried out by Swiss Chief Prosecutor Olivier Elsig, the results of which were inconclusive. He ruled out the involvement of a third party, shortcomings in the road surface or the tunnel infrastructure. Excessive speed, alcohol or technical problems with the vehicle were also ruled out. He, at no point, could determine whether or not Geert Michiels carried out an act of homicide/suicide with the vehicle. In fact the final report leaves more questions than it does answers.

Douglas De Coninck became interested in the story and carried out his own investigation. He has kindly given me permission to publish segments of his book (in English).

On October 05, 2015 I published my own findings on the crash in Sierre. I had painstakingly translated Dutch newspaper articles so I could get to grips with the investigation. My findings, which can be read here, included me sending an email to TopTours, a small family run  Aarschot-based coach company who owned the coach Michiels was driving on that fateful evening of  13 March 2012. Top Tours failed to respond to my email which was, in essence, a couple of questions, namely;

Do TopTours have any protocol in place where driver's are either... 
a) required to let TopTours know that they are on medication?
b) required to stay off work until they have finished their course of prescription medication?

Douglas De Coninck has since informed me that the TopTours owners grasp of English isn't that great and that my email could have been deleted. Douglas, however, has provided me with the chapter from his book that covers these questions that I had previously asked.

TopTours, like many transportation companies, including airline companies, are stuck in a quandary when it comes to issues regarding the operators of their vehicles.

This extract from De busramp in Sierre: 1 Pill, 28 Dead...

(Tom is manager of TopTours)


Since Sierre Tom asks his candidates for honest answers to the question of whether they take medication. "I'm obviously powerless," he says."What will you say when your boss asks you whether you are taking medication and you know that your job depends on it?"

Tom is right and this is something that needs to change not only with coach/bus companies but with airlines too. Lest we forget Germanwings Flight 9525 where co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who it has since been learned had been on a cocktail of psychiatric medication, deliberately crashed the plane into the French Alps, killing all  144 passengers and six crew members.

Lubitz, according to the New York Times, was treated from January 2009 to that October with at least two drugs, the SSRi Lexapro (escitalopram) and the antidepressant Remeron (mirtazapine)

Interestingly, the NYT substantiates the statement made by Tom from TopTours with...

"There is also evidence suggesting that Mr. Lubitz might have tried to mislead the F.A.A. about his treatment, initially marking “no” in response to a question on whether he had ever been treated for mental disorders on a form dated June 2010."

The FAA are the agency responsible for the advancement, safety and regulation of civil aviation, as well as overseeing the development of the air traffic control.

One can see here how difficult it is for bus and airline companies when trying to determine whether or not operators of their vehicles are either under the influence or withdrawing from psychiatric medications. This is a law that needs changing. Requesting medical notes from applicants for newer vacancies is, one would imagine, quite simple but it's the current workforce where this proves somewhat difficult.

After negotiations with an employment advisor and my former employers, Land Rover, I was allowed to return to work on light duties. My job was basically checking visitors in and out of the factory. As the call for security lessened I was given plastic sheets to cut. Three guesses what happened next? With a Stanley blade I deliberately cut my hand, not bad enough for stitches as I recall, nonetheless, it required treatment from the on-site occupational health centre. I don't know why I cut myself ~ the whole episode is just a blur. Did I mention that I was taking 40mg of Seroxat at the time? I had reduced the dose for fear of oversleeping and missing my early alarm call for work, also rushing out of the house in the morning to catch my bus to work...and forgetting my box of Seroxat.

So, if the bus driver, Geert Michiels, was taking or withdrawing from Seroxat at the time of the crash his employers, just like my employers, would be none the wiser. Moreover, even if my employers knew I was taking Seroxat chances are they wouldn't have seen it a problem by handing me a Stanley blade given that Seroxat manufacturers, GlaxoSmithKline, robustly defend the accusations that Seroxat can cause people to self harm, just as they defend that Seroxat can cause acts of homicide and suicide in adults that take it. What chance did TopTours have?

As I mentioned, TopTours are a small family run business who knew their employees on a personal level. With regard to Michiels here's another extract from De busramp in Sierre: 1 Pill, 28 Dead...

(Evy is Michiels' wife)

Tom was the only one who knew that Geert and Evy were married. "He spoke to me one day, asked me to promise to not say anything about it. To tell nobody at all. To me he had to say it, you need that kind of information for payroll. I found it a bit weird. Normally this is something festive, wedding, but okay,  I didn't think about it, later on. Yes, afterwards, of course."
On March 6, 2013, a year after the tragedy, the eyes fell upon Tom and Katia when an interview with Michiels' wife, Evy, featured  in the weekly magazine Knack. There she repeated it again, that this was supposed to be one of his last shuttles for Toptours "He was planning to stop the end of March, to do me a favor," Evy is reported saying.

However, this is something that TopTours deny. Here's Tom, TopTours manager, again...

"Three weeks before the accident, Geert came to us to ask if there was the possibility to come and work here as a full-time driver. He had heard that one of our drivers would leave since he was moving. We told him that he had to realize that he could not earn here what he earns at De Lijn (his other job), and now he was able to combine the two. He then said that he was looking for a new job and that it was his dream to become a coach driver. This has also been stated by several drivers in the firm."

So, why did Geert Michiels tell his wife he was resigning when in reality he had asked TopTours if he could go full-time for the company?

This extract from De busramp in Sierre: 1 Pill, 28 Dead...

A few weeks after the accident Tom and his wife, Katia, went to visit Evy. After she read out a letter at the funeral in Heverlee where she said it was still unclear who was behind the wheel, and that was repeated in Het Laatste Nieuws, they hoped that they could make her stop lying (she was told the first day that Geert was driving). 
They met in the flat in the Amerstraat in Aarschot. She told Tom and Katia that she hoped they could have contact with his (Geert's) daughter, because she often went with three of them to the zoo. (This was a lie)

Further information in De busramp in Sierre: 1 Pill, 28 Dead, shows evidence where Evy is less than fruitful with the truth. It's author, Douglas De Coninck, told me that Evy also made Geert believe that she was pregnant, only a few days before the crash, however, when Tom and Katia had visited her at her flat in Aarschot weeks after the accident, she told them that she had suffered a miscarriage, adding, "It's better that way."

De Coninck, also told me...

"Evy was instrumental in the split between Geert an his original wife and 4 year old daughter, she also took him to her own doctor who prescribed Geert Seroxat after a 20 minute consultation. They married in September 2011, but Geert wanted to keep that as a secret. Evy was also instrumental in separating him from his family, he hadn't seen or spoken to his brother and parents for over one and a half years.

"Just before the crash he tried to quit Seroxat.
.
"Earlier in the book, I published text messages I found in the court files, showing how she (Evy) tries to control him day and night. He needs to respond immediately, even if he's on the road in the middle of the night in Italy. On his last shuttle, the one before Sierre, he doesn't answer any of her messages, which drives her wild.

"Geert didn't see his 4 year-old daughter for more than a year, according to family members.

"Evy also made him believe that she was pregnant, only a few days before the crash.

"This is a taboo subject in Belgium and that is why meeting Tom and Katia of Toptours made me so happy. Their testimony was a missing key in my research."

De busramp in Sierre: 1 Pill, 28 Dead is available only in Dutch print. It's paramount that this book be published in English too and not hid away from the eyes of the world. Hopefully, De Coninck can convince his publishers that the subject matter is of as much importance to English speaking people too.

It would, of course, be beneficial if GSK or the European Medicines Agency (EMA) carried out their own investigation, however, the word beneficial means something totally different to these two entities.

A huge thank you to Douglas De Coninck for allowing me to republish segments of his book.



This post is dedicated to the 28 people who perished, 22 of them children.


Rust in Vrede.





Bob Fiddaman









Please contact me if you would like a guest post considered for publication on my blog.