[2banana]

He said: "Mohamed was fond of his family and adored children and wanted children of his own. But his wife was reluctant because it would have involved converting to Islam. When they divorced, he was forced to give her his life savings as part of the settlement." He added: "Mohamed is loved by everyone, always the one in the group resolving disputes, always wanting everyone to get along."

A strange tale...this woman is probably much better off.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Six volunteers were given doses of TGN1412 and suffered violent reactions which made their immune systems attack their internal organs.

Sounds like TGN1412 could be used as a chemical weapon.

[righttackle44]

"There was some progress in the condition of the other guinea pigs yesterday with three of them being taken off life support machines."

Human life is worth so much in Britain that three
very ill human beings are called guinea pigs.

[Tax-chick]

The drug, TGN1412, which is designed to beat rheumatoid arthritis, leukemia and multiple sclerosis,

I'm confused. Are they testing this drug on people who don't have the conditions for which it's a treatment?

[ahayes]

I'm not sure how applicable this is, but when I went to an ethics seminar here a year ago they said in the human trials part of it that the amount of money offered for completion of a trial should be high enough to compensate for the person's time, but not be so high that it would induce someone to ignore the risks because that could violate informed consent. I wonder just what these people were told about the risks and how much more they were offered than in comparable trials. I also wonder how strict these guidelines are in the US and if holding the trial overseas made things simpler for the company.

[cricket]

It has also emerged that researchers tried out the drug on monkeys, and their necks swelled up.

. . .okay. . .and then what happened? (The swelling went 'down' (?). . .they are permanently disfigured and/or in pain? They now are suffering from some debilitative disease?

What happened post the 'neck swelling'. . .no 'deaths' that they know of. . .sounds like this depends on the meaning of 'death'. . .

[brwnsuga]

I need to see pictures.

[JustDoItAlways]

Just wanted to add that research into this area should not stop.

If you can take the extreme of an antigen drug that turns on every T-cell in the body and makes them go beserk offset by drugs that just gently nudge a few of them to become a little more active, then there might be a happy medium where you just get enough of a response that viral or bacterial infections are stopped in their tracks by our own immune system. In addition, a properly designed antigen drug really could turn off immune cells involved in arthritis, asthma and other auto-immune deseases.

Lots of dangers still; but lots of promise as well. More "safety" required as well of course.

[Solamente]

"I'll have my 2000 Quid now, and a bag of peanuts if it's all the same to you as well!"