Guinea pigs

Some news from Russia-

MOSCOW - Russian prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into vaccine trials by British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC that were allegedly conducted on children without parents' permission.

The Prosecutor General's office said in a statement dated Monday and posted on its Web site Friday that investigators began the probe at a hospital in Volgograd, about 550 miles southeast of Moscow, after several children who received the vaccines fell ill and parents raised questions.

More than 100 children between the ages of one and two were given the vaccines during the trails, which have since been halted, the statement said.

Prosecutors said the deputy director of the hospital had been paid $50,000 to participate in the trials and that such tests on minors were illegal in Russia. They also said parents had been told the vaccines were humanitarian aid.

GlaxoSmithKline officials could not be immediately reached for comment, but Michael Crow, the head of GSK's Russian operations, told Dow Jones Newswires that the allegations were unsubstantiated and untrue.

"All of our trials undergo rigorous scrutiny and this study had been fully authorized by all the necessary Russian agencies," he said.

That really isn't an answer. Could a Drug Company be using foreign children as test subjects for its vaccines and other drugs without getting consent?

Yes I think they could. What do you think?

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