Three decades later, they continue to be talked about. Growth hormones contaminated with prions from the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) have infected hundreds of people when given to young children with growth abnormalities between 1983 and 1987. A third trial opens on October 5, 2015 before the Paris Court of Appeal at the request of the families of the victims. The first two trials held in 2008 and 2011 led to acquittals.
Two doctors at the helm
Two defendants are prosecuted in this case: Professor Fernand Dray and pediatrician Elisabeth Mugnier. Professor Dray ran the Uria laboratory, which made the powder ofpituitary, a brain gland containing growth hormones. Doctor Mugnier, meanwhile, was responsible for collecting the pituitary glands from the corpses, some of which turned out to be carriers of CJD. Of the 1,698 children treated with hormone injections, 125 died. The incubation time of this disease can reach 30 years, other cases are still likely to occur.
Damages for the families?
So far, the two defendants have not been charged because, given the scientific knowledge of the time, it was difficult to foresee such a risk of contamination. But French justice considers growth hormone as a drug. As such, it should therefore have been prepared by a pharmaceutical laboratory to benefit from strict supervision. At the end of the judgment scheduled for October 28, 2015, Professor Dray and Doctor Mugnier may have to pay damages to the families of the victims.
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