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Relations between official and drug firm queried Joe Humphreys The Irish Times CITY EDITION; HOME NEWS; THE HAEMOPHILIA TRIBUNAL; Pg. 11 July 6, 2000 The relationship between a drugs company and the BTSB's national director is coming into sharper focus, reports Joe Humphreys
The relationship between the BTSB's former national director, Dr Jack O'Riordan, and the multinational pharmaceutical company, Travenol, came under further scrutiny at the Lindsay tribunal yesterday.
The inquiry has already heard that Dr O'Riordan, now deceased, travelled to a conference in the United States on the company's behalf in 1979. It also heard that, five years earlier, he agreed to purchase blood products from the company despite having serious safety concerns over them, and did so seemingly on the basis that the BTSB would earn a 10 per cent commission on all subsequent sales to hospitals plus a profit on such sales.
"Concerning the other matter that you and I discussed together, I will now take my lead when I hear from you that you feel the time has come to talk again when perhaps we could have a quiet meeting somewhere."Counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr John Trainor SC, cited further evidence yesterday suggesting an "unusual" or "extraneous" relationship between the board official and the company. Among the documents was a letter in June 1983 showing a Travenol employee collected a diploma in Cambridge, England, on Dr O'Riordan's behalf. A further letter in January 1983 from the managing director of Travenol UK, Mr A.W. Barrell, referred to a social engagement in Dublin attended by Dr O'Riordan and a number of company sales representatives.
The letter also referred to some personal matter which seemingly only Mr Barrell and Dr O'Riordan were privy to. It read: "Concerning the other matter that you and I discussed together, I will now take my lead when I hear from you that you feel the time has come to talk again when perhaps we could have a quiet meeting somewhere."
Dr Emer Lawlor, deputy medical director of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service, as the BTSB is now known, said she was unaware what the matter in question was but suggested it could have been an offer from Travenol to start making blood products from Irish plasma, something the company did the following year.
Asked by Mr Trainor whether she thought the letter suggested an unusually personal relationship, Dr Lawlor replied: "That is obviously your interpretation."
The significance of the relationship comes into sharper focus when considering the BTSB's decision to purchase what seemed to have been a blood product not given heat treatment from Travenol in 1983 at a time when blood boards worldwide were moving towards safer, heat-treated products less likely to be infected with HIV.
In February 1983, Travenol wrote to the BTSB, making a "once-off" offer to sell the board a certain product in bulk. Dr Lawlor said she was not sure whether the product referred to was a blood product for haemophiliacs or another Travenol product, such as blood bags.
The tribunal will seek to clarify this issue in the coming days. It has not been helped, however, by a lack of certain financial documentation which apparently was destroyed by the board in accordance with its rules on the holding of such records.
Figures already given to the tribunal show that Travenol was the BTSB's second-biggest supplier of commercial product in 1983, providing a total of 1.22 million units. The company provided a further 563,000 units the following year.
Dr Lawlor later revealed the BTSB had investigated an employee of the board, who was now deceased, over his links with a drugs firm. Neither the staff member nor the company was named. Nor were any details of the investigation disclosed as Judge Alison Lindsay ruled the matter should be dealt with by another witness from the board at a later occasion.
The chairwoman also deferred further questioning on the destruction of the BTSB's Pelican House pre-1986 dispatch records, an issue raised for the second day and dealt with briefly by Dr Lawlor.
The IBTS deputy medical director said the records were destroyed in 1993, not 1995, as previously stated. She said the destruction was "very unfortunate" and that the only explanation she could give was that following the State's compensation settlement with haemophiliacs and their dependants in 1991, BTSB officials concluded the documents were no longer needed.
This was despite an instruction in 1989 by the board's chief executive officer, Mr Ted Keyes, not to destroy any documentation because of litigations.
Dr Lawlor said this instruction would have been sent to Dr Joan Power, regional director of BTSB's Cork offices, which unlike the Dublin office retained its dispatch records, and Dr Terry Walsh, the BTSB's medical director.
Dr Lawlor further stated that Mr Sean Hanratty, the board's chief technical officer, who retired in 1993 and died in 1996, was ultimately responsible for the dispatch department and its documents at the time of their destruction.
If that was the case, however, the question arises as to why he too did not receive the instruction from Mr Keyes.
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
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While other recommendations by the council were acted upon, there was no record in the minutes of BTSB board meetings of
the then director, Dr Jack O'Riordan, who attended the Council of Europe meeting, telling his board of these two
recommendations.
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Counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr John Trainor SC, asked the BTSB's deputy medical director, Dr Emer Lalwor,
why there was no record of the two points being brought to the attention of the board.
Dr Lawlor said the task of informing haemophiliacs about possible risks posed by products was one for treating doctors, not the BTSB. She added that treating physicians at the time played down the risk of haemophiliacs contracting HIV and AIDS. She also said that unfortunately at this stage most of the damage was already done. By early 1983, 85 per cent of those who turned out to have HIV had already been infected. Mr Trainor said that instead of imports being curtailed, they increased. He suggested to Dr Lawlor that a number of people might have been spared infection if the recommendations were adhered to. "A small number, yes," Dr Lawlor replied. Counsel said if so much as one person was spared infection and if just one family was spared their grief, it would have been a step worth taking. Mr Trainor suggested the BTSB should have immediately stopped distributing imported blood-clotting agents. Dr Lawlor said perhaps the BTSB should have done this but even if it had the products would still probably have come into the State. |
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a bump and a drip!
A drip and 2 links:
Today's stories in The Irish Times:
it really is amazing that no one in US press writes about this at all. If these Irish folks come up with a solid link back to AK that should be BIG news, right ?
Are these stories new info to you, or just new to make it to print ? I know you bloodhounds are on top of this, I was just wondering if any of you is ahead of this story.
it really is amazing that no one in US press writes about this at all
The beauty of bipartisanship.
It's the same in Canada.
I know someone in the US is going to write about this story and the Arkansas prison blood and the Irish.Stay tuned hounds.
a bump!
That's the best news I've heard in I don't know how long.
The Lindsay Tribunal in Ireland has been on the horizon for some time now. I would say that we are still waiting for a bombshell such as the Arkansas Prison Plasma/Canadian Red Cross connection that was revealed by the Krever Commission in Canada.
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
|
The society's present chief executive, Mr Brian O'Mahony, spoke to the senior technical officer with the BTSB, Mr Sean
Hanratty, now deceased, about the committee's concerns that Irish haemophiliacs would be infected with AIDS from imported
blood products in May 1983.
In documents opened to the tribunal yesterday, details of a consultation between Mr O'Mahony and Mr Hanratty are recorded.
Mr O'Mahony asked him if there was any reason why haemophiliacs couldn't use only Irish blood products.
Mr Hanratty said the BTSB had no problem supplying factor 9 for people with haemophilia type B and he said work on
developing a factor 8 product in the Republic for haemophilia type A patients was progressing slowly.
| Mr Hanratty said he saw no reason why the needs of Irish haemophiliacs should not be met totally by Irish products, which
would reduce the risk of them contracting AIDS. He agreed American blood products posed a greater risk because donors
were paid for their blood in the US.
The BTSB official added the IHS should communicate its misgivings to Prof Ian Temperley, director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, but not quote him on the matter. Then it should get back to him, he advised. Dr Emer Lawlor, on her second day giving evidence on behalf of the BTSB, acknowledged there was serious concern about AIDS at the time and the BTSB considered issuing a leaflet for donors to advise those belonging to certain groups not to donate blood. Mr Finlay produced an Irish Times article published in May 1983 with the headline "Effort to halt lethal AIDS disease starts", which quoted Prof Temperley and the then director of the BTSB, the late Dr Jack O'Riordan, on how they planned to exclude persons of certain sexual orientations from donating blood. Dr Lawlor said there was no suggestion at this time that haemophiliacs revert to cryoprecipitate, a home-produced product, instead of using the imported factor 8 but "it could have been done I think", she said. She added while there were risks with the imported blood products, the haemophilia community wished to continue using them. In July 1983, minutes of a board meeting of the BTSB recorded that its director, Dr O'Riordan, had said there was "an element of risk" attached to the continued use of imported factor 8. Asked by counsel if there were records to show this was how haemophiliacs felt, she said she had not found any in the files. |
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The search for the "smoking gun" continues. The love of $$$ is the root of all evil.
One has to FOIA the government agency that OK'd the export of the blood from the USA. I don't think it's the FDA. Is there a government agency that overseas all exports from the USA?
Don't bank on it. In Ireland when politicians or boards mess up (ie are completely corrupt). We don't try them. We invented these tribunals which basicaly take years and make sure no one is punished. I expect very little difference now. In fact half of the victims died before it started.
> he agreed to purchase blood products from the company
Bingo. You called it.
> Travenol wrote to the BTSB, making a "once-off" offer to sell the board a certain product in bulk.
OK, it's grape Kool-Ade, but it's cheap.
> Travenol was the BTSB's second-biggest supplier of commercial product in 1983, providing a total of 1.22 million units. The company provided a further 563,000 units the following year.
That has to be factor, doesn't it?
> By early 1983, 85 per cent of those who turned out to have HIV had already been infected.
How did they figure this out? There was no AIDS test in early 1983. Maybe they inferred it from the factor VIII that the BTSB had distributed? Is it not astonishing, then, that in February, 1983, Travenol offered a deal that the BTSB could not refuse?
That has to be factor, doesn't it?
yes indeed!
kinda like the "independant council" we have in America.
As I suggested elsewhere, you can truck plasma from Pine Bluff, Arkansas to Mt. Home, Arkansas a lot quicker and cheaper if you don't route it to Montreal and back. Businessmen are bright fellows. They'd figure out the savings :-)
Yeah becuse although it's called a tribunal it has a sole member. A sitting judge (who in the tribunal is not a judge) that's why there called Lindsay or Flood tribunals etc. And of course all judges are politicaly appointed. And like the US our two main parties are excatly the same.
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