Pfizer ordered to pay up over ‘AIDS-like’ virus infections

Pfizer ordered to pay up over ‘AIDS-like’ virus infections

By Daniel Tencer
Friday, April 2nd, 2010 -- 4:51 pm

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In what is being hailed as a major victory for workers in the biotech and nanotech fields, a former scientist with pharmaceutical firm Pfizer has been awarded $1.37 million for being fired after raising the alarm over researchers being infected with a genetically engineered "AIDS-like" virus.

Becky McClain, a molecular biologist from Deep River, Connecticut, filed a lawsuit against Pfizer in 2007, claiming she had been wrongly terminated for complaining about faulty safety equipment that allowed a "dangerous lentivirus" to infect her and some of her colleagues.

The Hartford Courant describes the virus as "similar to the one that can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS." Health experts testified that the virus has affected the way McClain's body processes potassium, which they say causes McClain to suffer complete paralysis as often as a dozen times per month, the Courant reports.

McClain's lawsuit (PDF) asserted that Pfizer had interfered with her right to free speech, and that she should have been protected from retaliation by whistleblower legislation.

Pfizer challenged her assertion, claiming McClain only started complaining about safety problems once her employment was terminated, the Associated Press reports. Pfizer also claimed to have investigated McClain's claims about safety violations and found them to be untrue, according to the New London Day.

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On Thursday, a jury in a US District Court in Connecticut disagreed with Pfizer, granting McClain the $1.37 million, as well as punitive damages, meaning the total amount could be much greater.

The WorkersCompensation.com Web site says the ruling is being "considered the first successful employee claim in the biotech and nanotech industry."

Workers' rights advocates are pointing to the McClain lawsuit as "evidence that risks caused by cutting-edge genetic manipulation have outstripped more slowly evolving government regulation of laboratories," reports the Courant.

McClain's lawsuit says she was exposed to the experimental virus repeatedly between 2002 and 2004, and when she lodged complaints about it, her supervisor said he would "falsify her future performance reviews and he told her they would be negative, and he threatened her in an aggressive fashion following the plaintiff’s repeated complaints regarding safety. He forcibly backed the plaintiff into a wall during one encounter."

'TOO BIG TO NAIL'

A report at CNN about a separate legal matter involving Pfizer states that the Department of Justice considered Pfizer to be "too big to nail" in an investigation of the company's illegal marketing of the painkiller drug Bextra.

CNN reports that, if Pfizer had been prosecuted over the drug, the company would have been excluded from doing business with Medicaid and Medicare. But because federal officials considered the company too big to be exempted from working with the government health programs, a dummy corporation -- Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc. -- was set up, and that dummy corporation then pleaded guilty to the crime.

"P&UCI sold no drugs and had no real employees, and its creation was simply a figleaf to allow a Pfizer entity to take the rap without harming Pfizer itself," explains Jim Edwards at the Bnet business blog.

Pfizer is the world's largest drugmaker, with annual revenue around $44 billion.


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Spineless 1 day ago

5 people liked this.

Wow, I wish I could create a dummy corporation to take the rap for any illegal activity that I could get involved with.

This is what is wrong with corporations. First corporations wanted the same rights as a person. Now corporations have rights in excess of any person. Corporations are not people, and they shouldn't have as many rights as people.

What does that say when the government is afraid to prosecute a corporation because of the ramifications?
FlagLikeReplyReply LIVE FREE OR DIE 8 hours ago in reply to Spineless

1 person liked this.

And people, mainly news media, wonder why there are so many Americans who are "angry" and "upset" with the way things are going in our land. Then they even try to portray these "angry" Americans as WING NUTS! You know, I'm f*cking MAD AS HELL and I'm a f*cking DEMOTARD (actually, I'm more of a DEMOWHOKNOWS) AND, CURIOUSLY, I'm beginning to think that ANYONE WHO ISN'T MAD AS HELL must have something to do with the problem. Ok, let's take it one more step: Most Americans, tea partiers and liberal democrats are mad as hell because we've been f*cked up the *ss by the government and it's criminal corporation friends and bankers for far too long.

THIS IS WHY I AM VERY MUCH PRO-MILITIA. THE THING IS, I'M JUST WAITING AND STOCKING UP FOR THE END GAME, BECAUSE IT IS COMING. (NO, I'M NOT A WACKO RIGHT WING CHRISTIAN). THE END GAME WILL COME BECAUSE THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS WILL WAKE UP, INCLUDING ACTIVE MILITARY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND FORCE THE GOVERNMENT TO TAKE A BACK SEAT, RIGHT WHERE THEY BELONG. I CAN'T WAIT TILL THEY TRY TO CHANGE ME; BRING IT ON LITTLE B*TCHES!

As long as the government desires to REMAIN A CRIMINAL AND ILLEGAL FORCE, THERE WILL BE PATRIOTS TO KEEP THE GOVERNMENT IN LINE. ONLY TIME WILL TELL THE EXACT NATURE OF THE END GAME BUT WISE AMERICANS ACROSS THE LAND ARE GETTING READY AS I TYPE FOR ARMAGEDDON, THE DEATH OF THE CRIMINAL U.S. GOVERNMENT!

PEACE WORLD! PEACE!
FlagLikeReplyReply grammarsnare 4 hours ago in reply to LIVE FREE OR DIE

How many of those five hour energy drinks did you drink?
FlagLikeReplyReply realnews 12 hours ago in reply to Spineless

1 person liked this.

Uh that corporations are above the law? That government, corporations and the media are all one in the same? These greedy immoral corporations run this!
FlagLikeReplyReply indi_progressive 21 hours ago

3 people liked this.

Citicorp created Citiholdings which bought all of their really bad investments, then citioldings went bankrupt, was bailed out, and cost taxpayers trillions of dollars, meanwhile citcorp kept all the good investments and posted billions of dollar sin profit while the taxpayers paid off their bad investments.

Imagine if i could create indi_progressive-holdings, have them buy all my credit card, mortgage, and car debt, have indi_progressive-Holdings go under, or get bailed out or whatever, but indi-progressive gets to keep the car and the house and the stuff he bought onthe credit card just the debt was sold to indi-progressive-holdings and they were dissolved, yea sorry, but look at my boat!
FlagLikeReplyReply undrgrndgirl 20 hours ago

2 people liked this.

i'm beginning to think each and every one of us needs to incorporate themselves...spineless (and many others posting here) i love the idea of creating a dummy corp to rid myself of debt...too fing big to (fill in the blank) my arze.
FlagLikeReplyReply texanarch 23 hours ago

2 people liked this.

Look, they came up with a chicken shit way to avoid accountability. Too big to fail, my ass. Fuck that. Big corporations are never held accountable. Welcome to the United Corporations of Amerika.
FlagLikeReplyReply realnews 12 hours ago in reply to texanarch

2 people liked this.

One Nation Under Wall Street !
FlagLikeReplyReply m3t 23 hours ago

2 people liked this.

A corporation should be tied to it's creators.

Different people supporting other ideologies harp on about responsibility, yet if a CEO doesn't have oversight over his company and that company kills people (murder or manslaughter)... then THEY should be held responsible for what their company has done.

If we're giving corporations the same rights as citizens, then a corporation is effectively a prosecution shield for criminal beings and that is absolutely f**king ridiculous.

Everyone in America has the right to be seething about this blatant fascism.
FlagLikeReplyReply bobshin 21 hours ago in reply to m3t

Then those outrageous salaries would truly be earned.
FlagLikeReplyReply thebloodhound 14 hours ago

1 person liked this.

Is it possible for me to set up a dummy corporation to buy my student loans from me? They don't even have to fold, I'll be happy with a 1,000 year loan term and glady pay 50cents a month on it!
FlagLikeReplyReply dennycrane 1 day ago

1 person liked this.

Well then, let's get some "new" people to do the inspecting and remove the ones that got the job that use to work for these "chemical plants" .
FlagLikeReplyReply edwards_com 1 day ago

1 person liked this.

Makes me wonder where HIV came from originally !!
FlagLikeReplyReply wiseturtle 14 hours ago in reply to edwards_com

1 person liked this.

A laboratory in Maryland.
FlagLikeReplyReply edwards_com 9 hours ago in reply to wiseturtle

The British have said the something all along.
FlagLikeReplyReply Corporate Industrial Country 1 day ago

1 person liked this.

HIV is a bio-weapon, same as H1N1. Both were genetically engineered by U.S. pharmaceutical firms for the MIC.
FlagLikeReplyReply AIDSdoesNOTdiscriminate 23 hours ago in reply to Corporate Industrial Country

Ignore alarmists and those who would tell you that the government is part of some vast conspiracy to infect us all…the government is barely capable of pounding sand into rat holes much less undertaking a conspiracy that would have been this vast. If this disease had anything to do with humans it was more than likely out of error than intent.
FlagLikeReplyReply bobshin 21 hours ago in reply to AIDSdoesNOTdiscriminate

1 person liked this.

They certainly are not capable of controlling the spread of a disease, but they are very capable of inventing one. Look at the hype that started all this, "patient zero", apocalyptic plague, GRID, safe sex and the crook who made a killing (literally and figuratively) off the meaningless test.
FlagLikeReplyReply joblo 1 day ago

1 person liked this.

THIS ISN'T REAL, GET BACK TO WORK!
FlagLikeReplyReply rgriffsf 1 day ago in reply to joblo

3 people liked this.

I'm HIV + and I can assure you it is very REAL to me. I have always though that the science we are aware of is far more sophisticated than what we know. Genetic Engineering and Amino Acid manipulation has allowed us to create artificial life forms. So, the creation of a virus with HIV like characteristics is not that unbelievable. No one deserves to have HIV no matter how it was contracted. People get all sorts of diseases exactly the same way that HIV is transmitted but you don't see the stigma against those diseases, just compassion. I believe that HIV is artificial and that makes whomever created it a Genocidal fuck head.
FlagLikeReplyReply bobshin 21 hours ago in reply to rgriffsf

The Easter Bunny is very REAL to me. I have as much proof as you do for HIV, someone who I respect told me. If you know you have it, then you should show the science community, they have yet to determine even what it looks like. Beyond that how do you know when or how you got it? I can't wait until Sunday when the Easter Bunny fills up my basket!
FlagLikeReplyReply youguysareretarded 20 hours ago in reply to bobshin

1 person liked this.

I assure you that there are pictures of the HIV virion.

I suggest that wikipedia, google or a visit to your public library may quench your outrage.
FlagLikeReplyReply B_Godot 1 day ago

1 person liked this.

I guess there is no longer a question of could they have created HIV and we're back to the question 'Did they?'
FlagLikeReplyReply sparkey 1 day ago

Strange that this AIDS like virus was developed just at the start of the Iraq war, isn't it? There is no way that it would have been used in Iraq or Iran as a biological weapon. No, that never was the plan, was it?
FlagLikeReplyReply scortchdearth 23 hours ago

As I think others have already noticed too...what in the name of hell were they developing an artificial "aids-like" virus for?...they don't say.

I normally don't joke around about anybody getting any disease, but it's a bit ironic that the plaintiff in this case must have been working with this new disease, in order to get it herself...was she helping to create it, I wonder?

How does she feel, being the first successful test?
FlagLikeReplyReply realnews 23 hours ago

OMG They are just as sick as I thought they were.
FlagLikeReplyReply jodiddy989 21 hours ago

Good luck with that. They will never haqve to pay it trust me.

Lou
www.anonymous-surfing.us.tc
FlagLikeReplyReply BEYOND concerned 21 hours ago

Contacting ANY Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) office; for a workplace safety and health violation in an employee's environment or neighboring environment/s is as bad as contacting a corrupt agent in the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who merely throws the information away or warns the drug lords, drug houses, drug field's etc.; "the DEA is on their way - I'll cover your ass as long as I can", "get rid of everything", "hide the evidence" and/or "lie, lie, lie".

What in the world is going on here? OSHA is a USELESS administration when it comes to ensuring employee's in the United States have a safe and healthy workplace environment. There need's to be a Congressional INVESTIGATION as to why OSHA does NOT do the job it was created for.
FlagLikeReplyReply scortchdearth 21 hours ago

"when she lodged complaints about it, her supervisor said he would "falsify her future performance reviews and he told her they would be negative, and he threatened her in an aggressive fashion following the plaintiff's repeated complaints regarding safety. He forcibly backed the plaintiff into a wall during one encounter."

Hmmm...pissing off a molecular biologist with access to aids-like viruses...sounds like the straw-bosses at Pfizer aren't exceptionally bright...
FlagLikeReplyReply peterpeterpeter 20 hours ago

Dear angry ignorant people who are talking about bioweapons.

A simple google search reveals that lentivirus belongs to the viral family, Retroviridae. The similarity to HIV comes from the presence of a DNA viral genome and the use of reverse transcriptase.

Lentivirus is often used in research for gene therapy because DNA viruses often insert their genetic material into the genomes of the cells they infect. This would allow a researcher to introduce therapeutic replacements for aberrant genes into the cells of people with genetic diseases.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=lentivirus

...retards
FlagLikeReplyReply thebloodhound 14 hours ago in reply to youguysareretarded

And the woman (along with other unnamed members of her staff) was infected with the AIDS-like lentivirus, showing that the virus is communicable. If one of the other infected members has a break down and decides to have sex with whoever he/she can this virus could spread. If it is not a bioweapon than why does Pfizer refuse to give up the DNA sequencing data? Because they intended to release it and profit from either restricting the cure/treatment, or sell it to the government as a bioweapon.
FlagLikeReplyReply peterpeterpeter 20 hours ago

Dear internet user, before you leave another ignorant comment:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=lentivirus
FlagLikeReplyReply peterpeterpeter 20 hours ago

Use google to search for lentivirus before leaving retarded comments.
FlagLikeReplyReply thebloodhound 14 hours ago in reply to youguysareretarded

The lentivirus used to test a communicable bioweapon.

Pfizer made $44Billion last year. I'm not surprised they can afford to outsource the trolls.
FlagLikeReplyReply The End 7 hours ago

What in the hell was Pfizer doing creating such a virus in the first place?!

Sounds like bio-warfare preparations to me. Everyone should Google (or better yet, Bing) "Joseph Moshe"---he was a whistleblower, a Mossad micro-biologist who in August of last year warned that the corporation Baxter International was going to release a bio-weapon disguised as a vaccine, and that they were going to release it in Ukraine. He was tear-gassed & arrested, it was all shown on the cable news channels. His Mossad training is probably what allowed him to resist all the tear-gas for so long (which reporters were wondering about at the time of the big arrest!).

Well, October rolled around, and guess what---lots of people started getting mysteriously ill in Ukraine! Coincidence? Who knows, but I bet the elitists who run this globe would really like to "cull the herd" and think out the population with some sort of selective virus.

Machines/robots/computers are taking away more human jobs, and human population is growing all the time. This can't go on forever, and they've probably got plans to deal with it-----like manufactured plagues.

This is all probably not as crazy as it first sounds, if you stop and consider it for awhile......
FlagLikeReplyReply Jim 6 hours ago

"McClain's lawsuit says she was exposed to the experimental virus repeatedly between 2002 and 2004"

Um...why is Pfizer creating experimental "AIDS" like viruses? Care to ask the question Rawstory?
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