Cut cozy ties between politicians, bureaucrats and pharmaceutical company in order to eliminate drug-induced diseases!

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

   A former Health Ministry official was convicted of professional negligence that caused failure to recall HIV-tainted blood products despite their knowledge of the danger.

   In a series of drug-induced HIV lawsuits, a top executive of a pharmaceutical company was convicted of importing, producing and selling these unheated blood products. The doctor in charge who embraced the use of such products had died when the lawsuit against him concluded.

   With the recent conviction against an ex-bureaucrat, the case will be closed.

Cozy ties between politicians, bureaucrats, and pharmaceutical corporation

   The danger of the blood products became known in 1983, but the pharmaceutical company in question withheld the information and continued to sell the products. The Health Ministry also neglected to order a suspension of the sales or a recall of the HIV-contaminated products.

   Thus, Japan was the only country to continue to permit the use of such dangerous products even after 1984, and many people were infected with the HIV virus.

   The top executive of the drug company was a former senior official of the Health Ministry. The company made political donations to the Liberal Democratic Party in hopes that the LDP would use its influence on the ministry. It also donated huge amounts of money to the doctor who had influence on the ministry. The fact is that the ministry continued to allow the production and sales of the unheated blood products.

   If drug-induced diseases are to be prevented, it is essential to thoroughly break the structure of corruption between politicians, bureaucrats, and the drug industry.

- Akahata, March 6, 2008