--- Silvia Ribeiro <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> (original in Spanish at http://www.etcblog.org/)
>
> La Jornada, Mexico, July 1st 2006
>
>
> BABIES AS GUINEA PIGS
> Biotech company turns two Peruvian hospitals into
> laboratories
>
> by Silvia Ribeiro*
>
> The biotech company Ventria Biosciences sponsored
> tests on babies and
> children hospitalized at two pediatric institutes in
> Peru, of two new
> experimental drugs derived from transgenic rice that
> was genetically
> engineered with synthetic human genes to produce
> artificial human
> milk proteins.
>
> The experiments - results of which were revealed
> this May in the US
> - were carried out at the Institute for Child Health
> and at the
> Nutrition Research Institute, both in Lima, Peru.
> The Peruvian public
> found out about the experiments when they were
> denounced by the
> Peruvian Human Rights Association and the Network
> for a GMO-Free
> Latin America.
>
> Ventria is a biotech company that specializes in
> so-called
> "Pharming," which refers to planting
> genetically-modified crops that
> are cultivated to produce pharmaceutical agents or
> chemicals. Such
> plant varieties are even more controversial than the
> GM
> (genetically-modified) crops designed for
> agricultural use. This is
> because the "Pharm" crops could contaminate food
> crops, via the
> movement of pollen or accidental mixing of crop
> residue, with
> significant health risks, particularly if they enter
> the human food
> chain.
>
> So far, no drug produced by transgenic crops has
> been approved for
> human use in the US or anywhere else in the world.
> Ventria began
> planting GM pharma crops in California, but was
> forced to move them
> to Missouri and then to North Carolina in response
> to resistance by
> farm groups and by consumer and environmental
> organizations.
>
> Because of the long and uncertain approval process
> for new drugs,
> especially those of this type, the company
> apparently decided to
> carry out their experiments on children in the Third
> World, where
> regulations are more lax and where it seems easier
> to find
> institutions that lack adequate funding (or ethics).
>
> In a recent public relations move to makeover its
> image, Ventria now
> calls these products "medical foods," most likely in
> order to evade
> the stricter regulations for drug approvals. The
> company is carrying
> out experimental production of two recombinant human
> proteins,
> Lactoferrin and Lysozyme, which are present in their
> natural forms in
> mothers' milk, saliva, semen and other human bodily
> fluids. The
> recombinant versions are produced in genetically
> engineered rice,
> which contains the synthesized human gene sequences
> responsable for
> their production. Two of these, extracted from the
> modified rice,
> were tested on Peruvian children.
>
> Ventria experimented with 140 children from the age
> of 5 months to 3
> years who were suffering from diarrhea and were
> hospitalized at the
> above mentioned pediatric institutes. The tests
> lasted 48 hours in
> the hospital, with two follow-up visits during the
> following two
> weeks. The children were divided into three groups.
> One so called
> "control group" received an oral glucose-based
> re-hydration solution,
> a second group received a (non transgenic)
> rice-based solution, and a
> third group got the same rice solution with the
> addition of the
> recombinant Lactoferrin and Lysozyme.
>
> According to the brief summary of the results that
> was published by
> the company, the children who received the
> recombinant treatment took
> an average of 3.67 days to recover, while the
> control group took an
> average of 5.21 days. Ventria announced the results
> while ignoring
> the fact of having used Peruvian children as guinea
> pigs, when they
> wouldn't have been allowed to administer the same
> tests in their own
> country. The purpose of the tests is to hasten
> approval and attempt
> to gain moral legitimacy for the commercial use of
> their
> controversial product, which they now say is mostly
> for the Third
> World.
>
> Nevertheless, their preferred market is not that
> of children in poor
> countries suffering from diarrhea, but rather the
> more lucrative
> market for so-called "nutriceuticals", including
> sports drinks and
> dietary supplements, among others. The Third World
> children simply
> offer more public relations value for the company.
>
> According to US pediatrician Jim Diamond, a
> surprising aspect of the
> results published by Ventria is that they used a
> group of children
> given a glucose solution as a control group, when
> there is an
> abundant medical literature showing that rice-based
> (non-transgenic)
> solutions work faster and more effectively in
> treating acute diarrhea.
>
> This means that the company, with the complicity
> of the Peruvian
> institutes, may have intentionally used a less
> effective control for
> comparison purposes, in order to make the positive
> effects of their
> product appear more dramatic. On the one hand, they
> exposed one group
> of children to unapproved transgenic drugs, while on
> the other,
> another group may have had their recovery delayed,
> because of an
> inferior treatment, for the purpose of obtaining
> better looking
> results.
>
> There are many scientific articles -- readily
> available on the
> Internet -- that reveal cases of adverse reactions
> like allergies,
> formation of anti-bodies, etc. caused by exposure to
> transgenic human
> proteins, such as anti-coagulants, growth hormones
> and insulin. In
> some cases this has led to the removal of products
> from the market.
>
> During the process of public consultation motivated
> by Ventria's
> experimental use applications to grow experimental
> field trials of
> pharma crops in the US, a number of organizations,
> including
> Consumers Union, the Center for Food Safety and
> Friends of the
> Earth-USA, provided authorities with comprehensive
> reports,
> referencing the scientific literature, in which they
> described in
> detail the possible adverse health effects of
> Ventria's recombinant
> Lactoferrin and Lysozyme. (1) They pointed out that
> the recombinant
> proteins are not identical to their natural
> counterparts, which means
> they could provoke immune system disorders or
> allergic reactions.
> The increased levels of Lactoferrin and Lysozyme
> could also favor the
> growth of pathogens, like the Helicobacter pyloris
> bacteria, which
> can cause gastritis and stomach cancer, the bacteria
> that cause
> meningitis, and others that cause illnesses that are
> difficult to
> treat because of antibiotic resistance.
>
> Obviously Ventria knew about these reports when
> they decided to go
> ahead and place Third World children and infants at
> risk in
> experimental drug trials. If the Peruvian institutes
> also knew about
> these reports, then their complicity is criminal. If
> they didn't
> carry out due diligence concerning risks, then their
> negligence is of
> the same order.
>
> * the author is a researcher at ETC Group
>
> Translated by Peter Rosset
> (the original Spanish version didn't include
> footnotes)
>
>
> (1) Consumers Union's Comments on USDA Animal Plant
> Health Inspection
> Service (APHIS) Environmental Assessment for Field
> Test of Permit of
> Ventria Bioscience rice genetically engineered to
> express human
> lactoferrin, USDA/APHIS Docket No. 05-006-1,
>
http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/2005/03/002090print.html
>
> Freese, Bill; Hansen, Michael and Gurian-Sherman,
> Doug.
> "Pharmaceutical Rice in California", July 2004,
>
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/pubs/CARiceReport7.2004.pdf
>
>
> -----------
>
>
> Bill Freese at the Center for Food Safety has
> written an excellent
> summary on this issue. The briefing paper "An
> Assessment of
> Genetically Engineered Pharmaceutical Rice and Its
> Potential Use in
> Oral Rehydration Solutions to Treat Severe Diarrhea"
> will soon be
> available at www.centerforfoodsafety.org
>
======
Carmelo Ruiz Marrero
http://carmeloruiz.blogspot.com/
http://bioseguridad.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/carmeloruiz/
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