UK swapped to fatal US blood products to save money, minutes suggest

The British government was willing to risk infecting NHS patients to get “lower-priced” blood products, according to a document that campaigners claim proves state and corporate guilt in one of the country’s worst ever scandals.

In November 1976, Immuno AG, an Austrian company that was a major supplier to the Department of Health, was seeking a licence change to allow it to supply a blood product from those paid to donate in the US rather than donors without a financial incentive in Europe.

According to the minutes of a meeting of medics in the company, it had been “proven” that there was a “significantly higher hepatitis risk” from a concentrate known as Kryobulin 2 made from US plasma compared with that from Austria and Germany.

A Granada World in Action documentary had already reported a year earlier that drug users and people living on the streets in the US were being paid to give blood and that the donors were not consistently honest about their lifestyles and health.

The prime minister defied calls from the inquiry chair, Sir Brian Langstaff, last year for a final compensation framework to be set up by the end of 2023 and for payments to be extended to the parents and children of those infected.

Immuno AG was bought by the US company Baxter International in 1996 for $715m, which spun off its blood products business in 2015 and sold it to Shire Plc.