Japanese HIV: Findings Contradict MHW Claims

Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare's claims that it did not halt sales of unheated blood products in 1985, when the risk of HIV infection was discovered, because it was unsure if sufficient treated products were available, are untrue, it has been found. MHW documents released this month show that supplies of heat-treated products would have more than meet demand, yet the MHW simply asked companies to recall their products voluntarily, leaving unheated products on the market until April 1988.

It is also reported that at least one public hospital may have still been carrying a contaminated product made by Baxter International four months after the firm said it had taken all unheated products off the market. This was the first time that Baxter has admitted this; Green Cross Corp and Nippon Zoki Pharmaceutical Co have already acknowledged doing this.

"Sudden Policy Reversal" Moreover, testimony given at a televised Diet (parliamentary) committee this month has further fueled rumors of collusion between the MHW and companies to delay the launch of heat-treated products by a foreign firm until Japanese firms could prepare competitor products. Kunimatsu Yamamoto, president of the Travenol Co (later renamed Baxter) at the time, said that in September 1983 the MHW had told his firm to conduct clinical testing of its new heat-treated products, in a sudden reversal of earlier agreements which was decided by "powers both in and out of the Ministry."