TGN1412 is the current designation given to a trial drug that is being tested in the UK as a treatment for leukemia. The first human trial resulted in some horrific results earlier today. First the background though:

Another human trial gone horribly wrong

Two men were in critical condition Wednesday in a London hospital and four others were seriously ill after taking a new drug in a trial supervised by a Waltham, Mass.-based company.

British regulators ordered the immediate suspension of tests of the drug, developed to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and leukemia.

“Two patients remain critical and four patients are serious but showing some signs of improvement,” Ganesh Suntharalingam, clinical director of intensive care at Northwick Park Hospital, said in a statement. “The drug, which is untested and therefore unused by doctors, has caused an inflammatory response which affects some organs of the body…” [Link]

Here is how things took a turn into science fiction territory and became plain scary for the volunteers:

The girlfriend of a man fighting for life after taking part in a pharmaceuticals trial has said the drugs he was given have left him looking “like the Elephant Man”.

“His chest is puffed out. He is already a big kind of guy but his face is out here, like Elephant Man, it’s completely puffed.

She added: “They haven’t got a cure. This is not leukaemia. This is a drug they have never tested on humans before so they don’t know what they are dealing with. It’s completely messed up their vital organs…” [Link]

A couple of the hospitalized volunteers appear to have been of South Asian origin.

Another volunteer who was given a placebo describes the madness that ensued:

A VOLUNTEER who escaped the drug test disaster told last night how he saw six healthy young men turn into wailing wrecks within minutes.

Human guinea pig Raste Khan — who did not know he had been given a harmless placebo in the test — said it was like a horror film unfolding before his eyes.

The 23-year-old TV technician added:

The test ward turned into a living hell minutes after we were injected. The men went down like dominoes.

First they began tearing their shirts off complaining of fever, then some screamed out that their heads felt like they were about to explode.

After that they started fainting, vomiting and writhing around in their beds.

It was terrifying because I kept expecting it to happen to me at any moment. But I felt fine and didn’t know why.

An Asian guy next to me started screaming and his breathing went haywire as though he was having a terrible panic attack.

They put an oxygen mask on him but he kept tearing it off, shouting ‘Doctor, doctor, please help me!’ He started convulsing, shouting that he was getting shooting pains in his back. [Link]

Once upon a time I was a human test subject as well. Never for new medications though. Unless they can promise to turn me into Spiderman (or the Green Goblin) I think I’d be too scared to now.