The poison line

Description

It has been called the worst treatment disaster in the NHS’s history. But when it was first used Factor VIII was pitched as a medical miracle: a drug made from human plasma that enabled haemophiliacs to lead lives free of fear that a minor injury would prove fatal. But in the 1980s, tens of thousands of haemophiliacs began to test positive with HIV and AIDS. Their life-saving treatment Factor VIII was infected. Award-winning journalist and host of the Bed of Lies podcast Cara McGoogan traces the line of infection, corruption and corporate greed back to four pharmaceutical companies who sourced plasma from American prisons, nightclubs and on Skid Row in LA, turned it into Factor VIII, and then sold it around the world.