Daily Mail | 11 Jan 2018
- Nearly 1,400 given jab despite five of six primates dying during medical trials
- Information given to parents of babies said vaccine was shown to be effective
- The babies were not harmed by jab but it did not protect against tuberculosis
Oxford University academics gave African babies a new TB vaccine linked to the deaths of monkeys in tests.
Nearly 1,400 infants were given the experimental jab even though five of six primates involved in a trial died.
An information sheet given to the parents of the babies in 2009 said the vaccine had been tested on animals and was ‘shown to be safe and effective’. But it did not mention the failed monkey trial.
The details, published last night after an investigation by the British Medical Journal, prompted calls for a tightening of rules governing the way animal research is reported. Oxford researchers were accused of ‘cherry picking’ their scientific evidence.
