9 Nov 2006

Corporate Exploitation of the Breast Implant Women: 5 of 5

Once posted on old Silicone City website

Scanned but not corrected - possibly from the Catch files

Corporate Exploitation of the Breast Implant Women:

**** November 7, 1994 - The Wall Street Journal: Baxter International Inc. and Age Wave Inc will for a new business, Age Wave Health Services, Inc. to help U. S. health-care providers serve the country's aging population. This is where the "smart money" is investing. (They will service nursing homes. There are over 10,000 nursing homes in America. With the baby boomers reaching retirement age, the population of elderly is expected to mushroom to 92 million by the year of 2000. They are buying up nursing homes. Do we want them servicing us? Nursing homes motto to their staff: "You see nothing, you hear nothing, you tell nothing."

August 30, 1994 - The Wall Street Journal

**** Baxter International Inc. plans to form a partnership with DNX Corp, (Dynex ?) a Princeton J. J. biotechnology concern, to research the production of genetically altered pig organs that could be transplanted into people with impaired heart, lung and kidney functions. (Doesn't seem like they are worried about silicone breast implant poisoning or the poor hemophiliacs does it?) It has been revealed that they are putting human genes into animals and animal genes into humans. Next class action: The Oink Settlement.

**** September, 1994 - Best's Review: Settlements that are negotiated after judgments frequently include either a protective order restricting access to the case's facts and evidence supporting its adjudication, or a vacating decision which expunges the decision from public record. These provisions primarily benefit manufacturers and their insurers embroiled in product liability and policy coverage disputes that use them to guard trade secrets and prevent unfavorable judgments from establishing precedents that future plaintiffs can cite. Underwriters can expect a growing number of states to restrict the practice of vacating judgments and approving settlements on the condition that evidence be kept confidential. Judiciaries across the country are getting increasingly uncomfortable with these practices and justices of influential courts are becoming advocates of reform.

**** May 25, 1994 - Chemical Week: A California jury has ruled that 10 out of 20 chemical companies named in a toxic exposure suit, including DuPont, Ashland Chemical and Henkel, failed to provide adequate warnings on the health risks of their products.

**** June, 1994 - Risk Management: Products Liability - "When the Unthinkable Happens - When Products go Boom!" - : "The first step," declared Richard C. Reynell, Senior Vice President of Becher & Carson Risk Management, in devising a strategy to effectively respond should a product loss occur is to realize that despite high visibility incidents such as mass illness arising from tainted food, , etc., most product failures occur gradually, so the level of damage is initially not severe.

Risk managers therefore need to recognize when this type of loss is forming so they can put all their carriers on notice. When sorting out a large products liability claim, Reynell recommended brokering the claim and presenting it to the claims handlers in an accurate, organized presentation. throughout this process, the risk manager needs to gather as much information on the product as possible and to establish a list of all the organizations that had anything to do with that product.

**** 1992 - Management Decision: Declining product quality and manufacturers' social responsibility is of increasing concern to consumers and to manufacturers, who must bear the cost of such faulty practice. five traditionally accepted theories in the field of ethics are discussed:

(1) utilitarianism-teleological theory

(2) universalism-deontological theory

(3) rights

(4) justice and

(5) Natural Law - The Golden Rule. Documented cases of poor-quality products are examined.

In the Ford Pinto case, for example, some observers argue that the company applied the utilitarian theory of ethics by performing a social cost-benefit analysis in which the importance of costs outweighed benefits but that the calculations were done in error. Universalism dictates that C. R. Bard would not have wanted its competitors to circumvent the Food and Drug Administration regulations simply to gain competitive advantage. By applying an ethical theory of Natural Law, diethylstilbestrol (DES) manufacturers would have felt the need to provide the best quality product possible in a reciprocal exchange of rights and duties. (So why is that so difficult for them to practice?)

**** March 2, 1992 - National Underwriter: The Dow Corning Corp. has for the first time outlined its $250 million insurance program to cover risks associated with its controversial silicone breast implants. With respect to claims made within the U. S., the company's primary insurer is Zurich (American) Insurance Company, according to a breakdown released by Dow, which has been insured by Zurich American on a claims-made basis since 1989. Dow also has umbrella and excess coverage. For 1992, the company has some $250 million of coverage for general liability and product liability claims layered as follows:

(1) Zurich American covers $5 million, with $3 million reinsurance retention by Dow Corning.

(2) London-based Anglo American Insurance co., Ltd. and London-based Zurich Re covers the next $20 million.

(3) X.L. Insurance Co. covers the next $75 million.

(4) A.C.E. Insurance Co., Ltd. covers for the final $150 million. (Look up in International Companies who owns these manufacturers insurance companies.) Is Dow Chemical's DORINCO (Dow Reinsurance Company) one of those appealing the catastrophic insurance payments?

**** April 13, 1992 - Business Insurance - At a national conference of RIMS, Robert Lehmann of Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc., advised that when settling catastrophe insurance claims, risk managers should have "local attorneys who have a good relationship with Catastrophe insurance companies". Catastrophic insurance has one overriding function: ensuring corporate survival. In a session at the 30th annual Risk and Insurance Management Society Conference, panelists advised companies to take great care in evaluation their exposure and structuring their catastrophe programs.

Robert Lehmann of Coco-Cola Enterprises, Inc., suggested that risk managers buy catastrophe insurance for automobile, general liability, product liability, directors and officers liability, and any other liability exposures that could lead to a huge loss. When deciding on limits, risk managers should consider when calculating foreseeable losses is the size of court awards handed down in various jurisdictions. To cover unforeseeable losses, risk managers should consider how much the company can afford to lose. Lehmann advised that when settling catastrophe claims, risk managers should have local attorneys who have a "good relationship with plaintiffs' lawyers" conduct the negotiations.

**** ABI Inform: Pro-Tort Reform Forces were not helped by the unbelievable callous comment from GENERAL MOTORS CORP. lobbyist, Alfred W. Cortese, Jr., who stated: "Here's a quarter for your sideshow," to the presence of Marlo M. Mahne, a disfigured Ford Mustang crash victim, who had fought against passage of the bill." (This is the kind of corporate "ethic mind-set" we citizens are up against!)

**** May 2, 1994 - Business Insurance <P> According to Barry R. Glaser of Ceridian Corp. and Michael T. D. Budge of X. L. Insurance, Ltd., risk managers need to thoroughly investigate any product liability claim if they want assurance that their liability insurer will provide coverage. risk managers should contact all their insurers, regardless of whether they are primary or excess, when any claim alleging damage caused by a product is received. It is very important to give insurers the ability to prepare for action, Glaser said during a session of a recent Risk &amp; Insurance Management Society, Inc. Conference. As part of the damage control process, Risk Managers need to think with a national strategy and not just react to events individually, said Budge.

**** July 12, 1993 - Business Insurance: Defending thousands of silicone breast implant lawsuits alleging continuous injury, Dow Corning Corp. is suing 73 of its liability insurers whose policies date back to 1962, the first year Dow Corning manufactured and sold the devices.

The combined limits of coverage at issue total $3.48 Billion. Dow Corning contends the insurers have stopped paying for defense and settlement of breast implant claims. Until 1991, Dow Corning's primary and first excess liability insurers had been paying implant claims based on the date the implant ruptured. However, the nature of the claims changed when plaintiffs began alleging a continuous, insidious disease, according to attorney John P. Olson of Hufstedler, Kaus and Ettinger

**** October 25, 1993: During a session at the Risk Management Forum in September, 1993, Richard Porter of Alexander & Alexander Ltd., and David Harari of Sedgwick, SA, expressed confidence that Europe's social security systems would prevent excessive litigation. Porter also warned Risk Managers about tough new product liability laws in the UK and other European countries. The EC Product Liability Directive of 1985, which has been adopted by the UK but not by France, introduced the principle of strict liability for the producer of "any product" that causes any property damage or bodily injury.

**** April, 1991 - Occupational Hazards: A solid legal defense against a "Failure-To-Warn" product liability lawsuit represents a" substantial investment" and capital and manpower and other resources by a company. Companies can take steps to lay the groundwork for a strong defense, including:

(1) Evaluate the company's products to determine their potential health hazards;

(2) Develop clear, complete, and appropriate warnings against possible hazards. Success of that defense depends on the well-organized and effective effort of the company to:

(a) design and implement an appropriate product hazard "warning program."

September 5, 1994 - Business Insurance (Subject: Reinsurance): A hypothetical case is presented which served as the backdrop for a lively, if inconclusive, debate that touched on arbitration, follow-the-fortune clauses, the US judicial system, and insurers' responsibilities to re-insurers at the Association International de Droit des Assurances' World Congress in Sydney, Australia. In the hypothetical case: U.S. paint manufacturer Safer Products has been a subsidiary of Even Safer Products PLC of Britain, which has worldwide umbrella liability coverage with Pay Claims Insurance Co., Ltd. of London. Pay Claims settled the suits for $20 million and has begun negotiations with 3 re-insurers it believes were on the risk during the relevant periods. (This is how they always come out ahead. Insurance companies "Reinsuring" themselves with world-wide conglomerate Re-Insurance companies. So why is Dow Corning, Bristol Meyers, Baxter International, etc., regular insurers balking, if they themselves will be reimbursed by huge world wide reinsurers conglomerates?

**** July 22, 1194 - The Wall Street Journal: The CDC (Center for Disease Control) said that Gammagard intravenoous product, a Baxter International Inc., immunoglobulin product now removed from the market, probably caused 111 cases of acute hepatitis C in the U. S. and Puerto Rico. Baxter said it has been named in one lawsuit related to the immunoglobulin hepatitis cases.

**** May 23, 1994 - Business Week: Corporate Chieftains' use and abuse of company jets are discussed. Baxter International's Chairman Vernon Loucks cited "security" reasons for using the corporate jet frequently for personal time. concerns.

**** May 11, 1991 - New Scientist

Two types of breast implants, Meme and Replicon, have been withdrawn from the market because of fears that they could cause cancer. The compound 2,4 toluene diamine, released by the implants and believed to cause cancer, is discussed. (Dear God, they used toulene! (See attached with regard to beryllium compound also. It is used in fluorescent lighting and according to case studies done in 1945-47 in the Journal of Industrial Hygiene caused deadly symptomoligies of cancer, weight loss, lung penumonitis, kidney problems, unbalance, etc. Did they use this chemical?) Dr. Shailer Bass (Dow Corning) and the Dow Chemical Company researchers (wrote articles for the Journal of Industrial Hygiene (see attached) as did the researchers for The Mellon Institute and knew of these articles and harm in the 1940s! They researched this Journal when they were developing silicone! This is criminal action!

**** January 19, 1994 - Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: Breast-fed children whose mothers have silicone gel breast implants could be at risk for abnormalities of the esophagus, a study published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association said. Drs. Jeremiah J. Levine and Norman T. Ilowite found lesions and decreased functioning the the esophagi of six of eight children nursed by mothers with implants. The esophagus is the muscular tube that moves food from the throat to the stomach.

Leaven and Ilowite, pediatric gastroenterologists at Schneider Children's Hospital and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New Hyde Park, N. Y., compared two groups of children who came under their care because of abdominal pain. The first group of 17 children were not exposed to silicone implants. The second group were 11 children whose mothers had silicone breast implants. Eight were breast-fed as babies and three were bottle-fed. Six of the eight children breast-fed by mothers with implants had impaired function in the lower two-thirds of the esophagus. The abnormalities were not seen in the bottle-fed children or in the control group.

**** ABI Inform: Genentech plus Corning Glass Works equals Genencor: Genencor, Inc. is a thriving example of the kind of joint ventures that are expected to proliferate in U.S. industry during the 1990s. The 7-year-old venture between Genentech, Inc., and Corning Glass Works has matured into the world's 4th-largest "genetic engineering" firms, with $30 million in annual revenues. To ensure Genencor's entrepreneurial independence, the parent companies have functioned primarily as investors, collecting shares of Genencor's profits but have no access to its research for their own applications. When Genencor faced financial disaster early on, it raised the money to survive by selling a one-third interest to STALEY CONTINENTAL in 1985 and a 25% interest to EASTMAN KODAK CO. in 1987. Genentech, now exists as a 25-25-25-25 joint venture of Corning, Genentech, Kodak, and Staley. (Note: Baxter International owns Genentech. It is a subsidiary of the ROCHE HOLDING COMPANY. ) Are we beginning to see the breast implant corporate "marriage" intrigue. All the same players as in 1898/1940s/1990s. Collusion in the implants manufacturing also? Were we used as "guinea pigs" for other pharmaceuticals, etc.to be used in other patent research?

**** ABI Inform: Genentech, Inc. is under investigation by the Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee, which is attempting to discover whether the new gene-spliced drug for heart attack victims, TPA (tissue plasminogen activator), was PUSHED FOR COMMERCIAL USE BEFORE ENOUGH WAS KNOW OF ITS USE AND RISKS. (Sound familiar - rush for the patent?) Genentech recruited a cadre of cardiovascular specialists to support TPA and overwhelmed Wall Street with promotions of the drug, but the Food &amp; Drug Administration withheld approval until November 1987.

Once TPA came to the market, there was concern that the very expensive drug was no more effective that the much cheaper Streptokinase. The company halted TPA production in October, 1988, with total 1988 sales falling short of the projected $400 Million. Subcommittee hearings are investigating whether "conflicts of interest and company influence" may have prompted National Institutes of Health (who were their moles) researchers to overlook TPA's risks. The controversy continues.

Genentech also has exclusive ownership of natural TPA and all synthetic variations on it, thwarting any efforts by competitors to devise drugs that might be far better for heart attack patients than the version invented by nature (God) and now sold by Genentech.

What the world needs is a variant of TPA that works better than the real thing, but no such product has yet come out of Genentech's laboratories. However well it works for protecting cotton gins and windshield wipers, the U. S. patent system has some real deficiencies in determining the rights to biological inventions - of God. (These damn corporate greed mongrals patented God's invention of the blood!)

**** ABI Inform

 Genentech has irritated Smith Kline Beecham Corp, the maker of an imminent competitor medication to Genentech's clot-breaking heart drug, TPA. In an apparent attempt to slow the Food &amp; Drug Administration's (FDA) approval of SmithKline's drug Eminase, Genentech asked California's two (2) Senators (moles) to write to the FDA in midsummer 1989 to ask that Eminase be reviewed by a "special advisory" committee. Within weeks, the Food and Drug Administration (moles) told Smith Kline Beecham to appear before such a Committee on October 31, 1989. Genentech is involved in litigation with some of the biggest firms in the world.

In November, 1987, the Food &amp; Drug Administration, "under public pressure," (a media spin) approved Genentech's highly controversial product, tissue plasminogen activator (TPA), a genetically engineered substance that breaks up blood clots in minutes. Sold under the brand name Activase. When extremely dangerous side effects were made known, Genentech used its public relations (PR) clout to silence probing into test results. MOREOVER, this same PR influence has "recruited many doctors" to invest heavily in Genentech." TPA has scored a remarkable illegal promotional triumph. (This is what it is ALL about. There is NO government when it can be bought at such a cheap price by these immoral human beings who consider themselves "UNTOUCHABLES."

**** ABI Inform: Current Senate actions indicate yet another trade negotiation approach with Japan. Complaints about the patent system which include among others that:

(1) it takes 5-7 years compared to 2-3 years in the U.S. for the Patent Office to rule on allow ability. Tensions between the U.S. and Japan are growing over Japanese patent system. some U.S. companies are complaining that obtaining a patent in Japan takes too long. Corning Glass Works was one of the companies that brought complaints before the Senate Subcommittee on foreign trade in June, 1988. (Again, a rush for the patent.)