Fwd: Re: WALL STREET JOURNAL ON VACCINES

[Guest guest]

>

>I am sending this out to all of you to show how the money is big bucks

>and the lies the manufacturers weave.They have no consience and care

>little of peoples lives.Just the almighty dollar they can make

> Marie Van-Es

> Concerned Parents For Vaccine Safety

>> THE VACCINE BUSINESS GETS A SHOT IN THE ARM

>> Reported by The Wall Street Journal -- After more than two decades of

>> languor, the vaccine business is heating up, with potentially huge

>> implications for drug-industry profits and public health. New

>> bioengineered vaccines -- unlike their predecessors -- are patentable

>> and are luring drug companies with the promise of high prices.

>>

>> What's more, changes in product-liability laws have reduced the risk

of

>> litigation that had helped chill product development. Drug companies

>> are now working to develop new vaccines against some of the world's

most

>> prevalent and costly illnesses, including AIDS, malaria, Lyme disease

>> and herpes. One of the biggest potential blockbusters in the

>> pipeline: a novel biotech vaccine from American Home Products Corp.

>> for ear infections

>> that cause severe discomfort and threaten hearing damage in millions

of

>> children under the age of three.

>>

>> The new wave of research is especially striking because it had been

>> stalled for so long. As devastating diseases like polio and

diphtheria

>> became distant memories -- thanks to vaccines -- public attention

>> shifted in the 1970s to side effects suffered by a small fraction of

>> those inoculated. A raft of lawsuits over adverse reactions to

vaccines

>> for " swine flu " and other diseases followed. The combination of low

>> profitability and rising liability forced many companies out of the

>> vaccine business.

>>

>> The climate slowly began to change again in 1986 after passage of a

>> federal law that shields vaccine producers from all liability not

>> related to manufacturing error. Since 1988, a tax on each dose of

>> vaccine purchased goes into a fund to compensate patients who suffer

>> adverse reactions. Claims for inoculations before 1988 are paid by

the

>> federal government.

>>

>> One of the most eagerly awaited products is the vaccine against ear

>> infections, which afflict 85 percent of kids before the age of three

and

>> cost, by some estimates, between $3 billion and $4 billion a year to

>> treat. Between one-third and one-half of visits by sick children to

>> pediatricians' offices involve ear infections. In most cases, ear

>> infections clear up on their own, says Steve Berman, a professor of

>> pediatrics at the University of Colorado. But doctors are quick to

>> prescribe antibiotics to avoid hearing loss, which may disrupt

language

>> and other brain development. The widespread use of antibiotics is a

>> major contributor to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria that can

cause

>> pneumonia, meningitis and other deadly diseases.

>>

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