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The AIDS Pharmacy "We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful
truth, and listen to the song of the siren till she transforms us into
beasts. For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing
to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and provide for it."
Patrick Henry, on the brink of the American Revolution But Chris is not aware of the truth concerning AIDS
or the HIV tests. He has only been told that HIV is an incredibly volatile
viral agent capable of spreading easily through bodily fluids and through
the transfer of blood products. So Chris takes the highly unspecific 'HIV
test', and after two weeks of inner turmoil waiting for the result, he
is told he has 'the virus.' As Joan Shenton says: · Early intervention treatment with anti-viral
therapy (AZT, ddI, ddC, d4T, etc.)… or Chris decides on early intervention with AZT - after
all, his doctor knows best and this is modern medicine. Had Chris elected
not to have AZT to begin with, but to go home and wait for the AIDS symptoms
to manifest, he would not have long to wait before starting to notice
a number of physical symptoms. That is because Chris is already showing
signs of illness through stress alone. He has been persuaded by his doctor
and a relentless media into watching for the common symptoms of AIDS.
These indicators are 'something like flu', diarrhoea and pronounced fatigue.
Notice that these are also psychosomatic symptoms, each of which can be
brought on simply by the worry of being HIV positive and thus 'prone to
AIDS'. Chris has not opted to go home and wait. Having received the equivalent of a verbal death sentence and now not feeling well at all, Chris has decided on the doctor's suggestion of early intervention treatment with AZT. So what is AZT? Dissident AIDS researcher and author
Christine Maggiore introduces us to this widely prescribed AIDS drug. Since cancer is made of persistently growing cells,
AZT was designed to prevent formation of new cells…. In 1964, experiments
with AZT on mice with cancer showed that AZT was so effective in destroying
healthy growing cells that the mice died of extreme toxicity. As a result,
AZT was shelved and no patent was ever filed." It has been reported by Project AIDS International that Richard Beltz, the creator of AZT, called for the abandonment of this drug because 1) its extreme toxicity made it unsuitable for any chemotherapy - even short term, and 2) it was carcinogenic (cancer causing) at any dose. Barrister Anthony Brink remarks: And indeed that is the case. With a skull and cross-bones on the outer label (see photo section), and a reminder to wear suitable protective clothing when handling, the inner contents of the AZT packaging include the following side-effects advisory notice: WHOLE BODY: abdominal
pain, back pain, body odour, chest pain, chills, edema of the lip, fever,
flu symptoms, hyperalgesia. Dr Stefan Lanka has this to say: The horrific toxicity of AZT brings on the symptoms of AIDS: diarrhoea, malabsorption of food, leading to rapid weight loss and immune deficiency disorders. This, of course, has led some doctors to maintain the dosage of AZT or even increase it in the patient, believing the medication 'isn't working' and more is required. This, in turn, accelerates the degradation of the patient. More AZT is given. The patient relapses further, and so on, down the slippery slope to death. More disturbingly, while most cancer chemotherapy agents are only administered to the patient for a strictly limited period of time in view of their toxicity, AZT is prescribed until the end. Chris is now quite literally dying. In being prescribed AZT, Chris is receiving white capsules with a blue band. Chris hasn't been told about the protective clothing worn in the AZT labs. He's read the side-effects insert, but he's resolved to fight his dreadful 'illness' with the strongest medicine the doctors have got. Chris will not live much longer. Now his doctor advises that his dosage be increased to attempt to combat the ravaging effects of the HIV, now apparently evidencing itself so markedly. Chris agrees to the increased dose. And when Chris eventually dies of liver and heart damage, malnutrition and dramatic weight loss through internal haemorrhaging and other complications, his family will mourn the passing of a dearly loved husband, father or son who was brave to the very end, but who had, to the uninitiated, finally succumbed to the deadly HIV. But Chris did not die of HIV/AIDS. Chris's death was by prescription. In exactly this manner, thousands upon thousands of
men and women have been persuaded to take AZT, a drug believed by the
more discerning in the scientific community to be the leading cause of
AIDS in the Western world. Researcher Newly Abbott remonstrates: Despite this catastrophic history, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) rises defiantly in defence of the positive benefits of its most infamous product. In fact, AZT's information leaflet, incongruously titled Positive Benefits, states "… there are no life-threatening side-effects associated with zidovudine [AZT]." GSK further cites numerous studies to substantiate its claims that AZT both "prolongs life" and "enhances its quality". The problem is, the only studies that appear to demonstrate these "positive benefits" are the studies funded, either directly or indirectly, by the GSK's Wellcome Foundation. As we shall see, independent studies conducted on AZT paints an entirely different picture. How is it that such a drug can ever be prescribed today? Serendipity. Twenty years after AZT was shelved as an unusable poison, HIV was the talk of the medical establishment after Gallo's press conference. The emergence of the phenomenon of immune suppression known as AIDS presented an incredible opportunity for someone to come up with a lucrative, new drug to combat the supposed guilty virus. David Barry, GSK's (Wellcome's) erstwhile chief researcher in the United States, was a man who knew a golden opportunity when he saw one. Barry had a number of advantages working for him. He knew US FDA drug approval procedures after having worked at the federal agency during the 1970s as a virologist. Barry's main advantage, however, was that he worked for the Wellcome Foundation, whose unusual non-profit charity status enabled the corporation to donate large sums of tax-free grant money to strategic institutions throughout government, universities and the corporate world. Wellcome thus had many grateful and influential friends. David Barry turned his attention to the company archives in the early 1980s in search of previously rejected compounds. The race was on for an AIDS drug, there was no time to research a new substance from scratch, endure the interminable FDA approval procedures and expect to be first into the new and wide-open AIDS market. Barry knew if he succeeded in locating a suitable existing substance, Wellcome would save millions in research and development money in addition to being perfectly positioned to corner sales. Barry selected a group of drugs and forwarded them to his friend, Dani Bolognesi, a professor at North Carolina's Duke University and a former colleague. Bolognesi tested the substances in his lab to see if any proved to demonstrate an ability to halt viral cell multiplication. One drug, codenamed Compound S, was wildly successful. Bolognesi wasted no time in sending his approval back to Barry for Compound S, or, as the archive tag in Barry's office would later identify it, AZT. Bolognesi subsequently referred David Barry to Sam Broder, the man in charge of Robert Gallo's laboratory at the National Cancer Institute. Barry and Wellcome needed the clout the new 'Pope of AIDS', Robert Gallo, was able to bring to bear to get AZT through the FDA approval procedure. Barry duly sent Sam Broder a sample of Compound S in late 1984. The drug's ability to interrupt cell multiplication impressed Broder right away. Broder was later to become known in research circles as 'Mr AZT', such was his new-found fervour for the drug. Barry and Broder were the right men at the right time
for AZT, Bruce Nussbaum recalls: Broder hurried AZT through its Phase 1 trials. Unprecedented
FDA co-operation was extended because of the extreme pressure being brought
to bear on the US government by pro-medication AIDS activist groups determined
to see a drug onto the market as quickly as possible. Duesberg records
what was happening in these hurriedly approved AZT trials: A follow-up study shattered anyone's illusions that
AZT was in any way beneficial when all the patients were put on the drug.
An unacceptable rate of fatalities prompted urgent calls for the trials
to be stopped. Bruce Nussbaum again: Unknown to Broder however, another disastrously unscientific
situation was developing. Some of the patients, completely sold on media
rumours of AZT's miracle healing powers with AIDS, were determined to
get their hands on the drug and forget the placebo. Discussions among
the patients began, with some tasting another's medication. Some of the
placebo group, unknown to the investigators, began taking AZT, further
corrupting any blinding value the trials would have had in determining
the effectiveness of the drug. Also, some of the AZT recipients simply
were not able to complete their courses of AZT due to the drug's extreme
side-effects. Margaret Fischl, who headed up the study, admitted: Here Fischl blatantly admits that doctors knew all
along who was using AZT. So much for the double-blind, placebo-controlled
trial. Christine Maggiore records other trials, not funded by Wellcome,
which were producing a similar worrying picture: Following recommendations for 'early intervention',
one third to one half of those who take AZT begin treatment before manifesting
any symptoms of AIDS, although independent studies have shown that AZT
actually accelerates clinical decline and decreases quality of life, at
times even causing death before any AIDS defining illnesses appear - an
occurrence officially described as 'death without any preceding AIDS-defining
event.'" British and French scientists organised what became known as the Concorde study in 1991. The purpose of the three-year study was to test whether AZT prevented the onset of AIDS indicator diseases in HIV positive but otherwise symptomless individuals, as compared with those who were already demonstrating the onset of AIDS. Evidently as the study progressed, arguments between the scientists erupted over whether to continue the trials in view of the appalling toxic attrition they were witnessing. They nervously agreed to continue. After three years, the researchers published their
results. Their indictment of AZT was total. The death rate in the AZT
group who were taking the drug to avoid developing AIDS was 25% higher
than the control group. Then again, some of those who survived could no
longer stand the nausea, vomiting and anemia, so they flushed their AZT
capsules down the toilet. The day before this news was reported in England,
Professor Tony Pinching, director of immunology at St Bartholomew's Hospital,
London, went on record in the Daily Telegraph, warning HIV positive, symptomless
individuals that they would be better off without drug therapy. Not surprisingly,
the Concorde report also clearly showed that AZT did not halt the development
of AIDS. Gay historian and AIDS dissident John Lauritsen was
incensed: Dr Joseph Sonnabend, an American AIDS researcher, had
this to say about AZT: And Dr Harvey Bialy, molecular biologist and science
editor of Bio/Technology, states: Another alarming trend noticed was that longer-term treatment with AZT brought on lymphoma (a type of cancer) in around half of the patients. Incredibly, even then, the virus-hunting lobby rushed to defend the drug, declaring that patients were living longer on AZT and therefore merely stood a higher, statistical risk of developing cancer! Dr Sonnabend filed a report with the Food & Drug Administration questioning the criteria and basis for the licensing of AZT. He never received a reply either from the FDA or from Burroughs-Wellcome. In spite of these and other drug trial fiascos, the Food & Drug Administration approved AZT as an anti-retroviral treatment for AIDS. Once approval was granted, AZT became THE AIDS drug, and demand for the expensive and exclusive substance grew so fierce, Wellcome was hard pressed to supply the quota. Despite the widely reported failures, Wellcome's income from AZT very quickly became the envy of its counterparts. Soon, other drug giants began vying for a piece of Wellcome's AIDS pie. Hoffman La-Roche produced dideoxycytidine (ddC) and Bristol-Myers Squibb marketed its version, known as ddI. During testing, ddI was found capable of destroying nerves throughout the body and causing fatal damage to the pancreas, something not even AZT was reported to do. Doctors began experimenting with ddI, giving it to patients who were unable to tolerate AZT. Many patients inexplicably died during these unofficial trials, but once again, the FDA was able to staunch the inevitable flood of complaints. AZT (Retrovir) and its derivatives are still prescribed
with reckless abandon. But, just as the turbulent history surrounding
the UK's Windscale nuclear power plant necessitated a politically expedient
name-change to Sellafield, Wellcome and other manufacturers are now giving
their window display a fresh new look. At the 1996 Conference on Retroviruses
and Opportunistic Infections, a new generation of AIDS drugs known as
'protease inhibitors' was launched. Protease inhibitors, or 'combo cocktails',
are said to enhance dramatically the effects of AZT and ddI. Since then,
drug companies have been pushing the 'latest, great news' on AIDS, stridently
insisting that their cocktails be taken, like margaritas, in large doses
for life, yet in the small print stating "…the long-term effects
of protease inhibitors are unknown." Christine Maggiore explains
the drug companies' continued psychological conditioning of their vulnerable
patients: Drug company Merck muscled to the front in getting
FDA approval for its protease inhibitor cocktail drug, Crixivan. Such
was the hype surrounding the AIDS scare, the drug received FDA approval
in just 42 days. Christine Maggiore again: Protease inhibitors have been wildly successful in one area however - breathing new life into the AIDS industry and increasing the cash-flow further. The US has traditionally dominated the HIV market in terms of sales and as of October 2004, is the largest market in terms of antiretroviral sales, accounting for 62% ($6.7 billion). Now that is a lot of money. Drug companies are promoting their protease inhibitors in an orgy of marketing excess. Billboards and magazines advise 'AIDS-infected positives' to "be smart about HIV" by "hitting early and hard" with the new generation of AIDS wonder cocktails. Straight Up is a glossy African AIDS community magazine promoting the latest 'breakthroughs' in the war against AIDS. Featured in one section is a double-spread on alternative treatments for HIV positive sufferers, including the highly favoured homoeopathy. The basis of homoeopathy's alleged curative powers is to administer to the patient minute doses of the main aggravating agent, thus conforming to the principle of 'like cures like'. Where, one might legitimately ask, does the homoeopath obtain his minute quantities of HIV? Alongside other questionable, alternative treatments, the magazine also included several full-page adverts from the pharmaceutical industry: "Stay Strong… HIV Care" - Glaxo Wellcome The fresh and healthy promises, a central feature of
these multi-million-pound PR campaigns, mask the ugly, clinical reality
concerning these drugs. And what is the ugly, clinical reality? It is
that protease inhibitors have been a dismal failure from the very start.
Merck actually delayed marketing their own protease inhibitors for four
years because the drugs were killing their laboratory animals. This ethically
controversial data was not made known to those people taking part in the
protease inhibitor trials. Little wonder the New York Times reported that
"…unexpected deaths amongst human protease inhibitor consumers
are rising." Even Dr Michael Saag, a paid consultant for AZT's
manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline and other pharmaceutical corporations, confesses
that the cocktail dam holding back AIDS is already springing serious leaks: Fellow protease expert Dr David Rasnick is equally
dismissive. For Rasnick, the press ecstasy and back-slapping over the
release of protease inhibitors recalled the previous euphoria over AZT.
Gallo too, in a break from his usual upbeat tradition, stated that "… these drugs are toxic… The longer you take the drugs, the greater the toxicity." One would imagine that an organisation such as The
AIDS Treatment Project would take the comments of Saag, Rasnick and Gallo
into consideration before dispensing their advice to the HIV- positive
community. Sadly, this is not the case. In their leaflets entitled An
Introduction to Combination Therapy and Changing Treatment, there are
numerous warnings to adhere strictly to the regime and not miss medication
times: Stephen Rogers recounts his nightmare encounter with
protease inhibitors. Heralded as the Wonder Drug and possible cure for
AIDS, Stephen was recommended to take part in a clinical trial for one
of the new protease inhibitor products, Saquinavir. Stephen's account
has been necessarily condensed, but the thrust of his story is self-evident: "My trial consisted of AZT, ddl, and Saquinavir.
During the first year, I needed a blood transfusion. During the second
year I developed a mild attack of shingles and I became affected by the
condition Lypodistrophy, with changes in my body shape and veins of the
lower limb beginning to protrude and the skin on my thighs becoming more
transluscent. My medication was changed to Ritonavir. My doctor brushed
aside my concerns that some people had died of liver failure through this
drug. The first two weeks brought no side-effects and
then… the onslaught. Numbing and tingling in the lips, lethargy, insomnia,
crippling stomach cramps and chronic diarrhoea. My doctor then reintroduced
Saquinavir, alongside the Ritonavir. I developed a skin abscess, which
swelled to the size of a golf ball. My doctor tried to blame it on my
sexual pursuits…. My clinic appointments were now a torture, occurring
every two to four weeks. I began to feel more like a lab rat than a person.
The mountain of pills and capsules I had in my hand now filled me with
dread. Each time before taking them I would pause and think: 'These drugs
are killing me.' I felt confused and frightened. The organisations set
up to help people like me had become no more than shadow puppets, projecting
the image of living longer and better on combination therapy, but with
no actual substance to their claim. And so, instead of accepting the situation as many
do, I began a relentless quest for the truth and began asking lots of
questions. When I learned the Viral Load Test is highly inaccurate, my
fear turned to anger at being duped. I made a decision to stop taking
the drugs." Amazingly, Saquinavir was declared a 'Millennium Product' by the Millennium Design Council. Exhibited in the failed, now-dismantled Millennium Dome at Greenwich, London, and included in exhibitions in schools and colleges across the UK, a jubilant spokesperson for Roche, the manufacturers of Saquinavir, said, "We are proud that Saquinavir's contribution to anti-HIV therapy has been recognised and delighted that it has received this award." Stephen believes he is alive today largely as a result
of ceasing his 'award-winning' medication. AIDS establishment critic Dr
Jens Jerndal notes: There are now too many medical case histories which bear out the fact that the body (as in Stephen's case) demonstrates a remarkable ability to recover from many of the illnesses we are witnessing today when one exchanges toxic medicines for a sensible lifestyle and sound nutritional regime. More information on this subject can be found in later chapters. For fully annotated version of this article with references Click Here Further Resources Click
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