The Lindsay Tribunal has been told that pharmaceuticals firms engaged in what was termed "a horrendous practice" in the 1980s which was "almost a design" for infecting haemophiliacs with the HIV virus.
Expert witness Dr Donald Francis from the United States said that the companies used plasma for haemophilia blood products which should have been thrown down the sewer.
Dr Donald Francis worked for more than 20 years at the US government agency which was responsible for tracking the emergence of AIDS from 1981. This mystery disease was almost always fatal and while it initially affected gay men, it later hit intravenous drug abusers and people with haemophilia.
By the end of 1982, Dr Francis came to the view it was caused by a new virus which moved through blood and body fluids and consequently urgent blood safety measures needed to be implemented.
However at a meeting to devise a US policy in January 1983, blood bank officials and drug firms refused to accept them, arguing his agency could not prove it was a virus. Dr Francis said told the Tribunal, "I actually pounded the table and asked how many deaths they needed before they would respond."
He said that he believed more than 50% of people with haemophilia who got HIV blood products could have been saved if his agency's proposals were accepted.
Dr Francis went on to give dramatic testimony about a practice by some drug companies in the early 1980s which he said only come to light recently due to infected haemophiliacs taking legal action.
He contended that some companies targeted gay men who had been exposed to Hepatitis B, and appealed to them to come forward and donate blood to help make vaccines for the virus. What no one appeared to know was the left-over plasma was used to make blood products for haemophiliacs.
By 1982, gay men were a recognised high-risk group for passing on HIV. Gay men who had been exposed to Hepatitis B were of even more of a risk.
Dr Francis said that the gay men were giving their plasma for altruistic reasons, but the companies, possibly for economic reasons, made an incredible mistake. He characterised the use of this plasma as "a horrendous practice" which was "almost a design" for infecting haemophiliacs.
Dr Francis concluded it should have been thrown down the sewer. Minister Mícheal Martin is due to announce within the next week if these firms are to be investigated.
