On March 16th of this year, Abhi wrote about a first-in-man trial in the UK which went horribly awry for six volunteers who experienced heart, kidney and liver failure after they were given an experimental drug made by German firm TeGenero, called TGN 1412:
It is an anti-inflammatory agent makers hoped would become a lucrative treatment for rheumatism, leukaemia and multiple sclerosis.[link]
When we first posted about this nightmarish story, Doctors said they were in the dark and that they did not know exactly how these human guinea pigs would be affected. Unfortunately, now it seems we have an answerand it is tragic:
Victims of the disastrous Elephant Man drugs trial have been told they face contracting cancer and other fatal diseases as a result of being poisoned in the bungled tests. [link]
Nav Modi, 24, whose bloated face and swollen chest led to the nickname Elephant Man, said he did not know how long he would live.[link]
Its a really bizarre feeling when you discover you might be dead in a couple of years or even in a couple of months, he said. I feel like Ive given away my life for £2,000.[link]
It seems that not only were the volunteers (quite predictably) assured before participating in the trial that they would not suffer any life-threatening illnesses, they were told that after it was obvious that the test results were disastrous, too.
Four months later he still suffers from occasional lapses of memory, severe headaches, back pain and diarrhoea. (Modi) and the others had been led to believe that while their symptoms might persist for a while, their long-term future was not at risk.[link
Wrong. So very wrong.
One of the six victims was told last week he is already showing definite early signs of lymphatic cancer.
He and three others have also been warned that they are highly likely to develop incurable auto-immune diseases.[link]
