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Drug firm now says it bought 7,500 glands 1970-1980's
By Caroline O’Doherty
Friday, August 20, 2004
Irish Examiner
THE number of deceased patients whose pituitary glands were supplied to a Danish pharmaceutical firm was three times greater than revealed earlier this week. Novo Nordisk said yesterday it was supplied with 7,500 glands from hospitals over a 10-year period rather than the 2,500 it had earlier said it received.
A typing error in a briefing document prepared for a response to media queries was blamed for the mistake. The figure of 32 given for the number of hospitals which provided glands was correct.
Company chief science officer Dr Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen said the figures were correctly recorded in documentation the company supplied to the Dunne Inquiry, which is investigating the organ retention controversy.
Dr Thomsen said there were more adults than children among the 7,500 patients whose glands were supplied for use in the production of growth hormone Nanormon.
“There is some confusion about this. People tend to think that because it makes growth hormone, the pituitary gland is specific to children but, in fact, the vast majority donated to the company were from adults.
“Obviously people tend to pass on at a higher age, which means more deceased patients are adults but also the pituitary gland in a child is very small compared to an adult, so it produces less growth hormone.”
The practice of harvesting pituitary glands for hormone production ended in the mid-1980s when advances in biotechnology enabled scientists to make a synthetic substitute.
Prior to that, Novo Nordisk estimates it supplied the medical market in Ireland with a quantity of Nanormon sufficient to treat about 100 children a year for conditions relating to growth deficiency.
Dr Thomsen said the hospitals received a financial “contribution” of about e2 per gland “with the understanding that this would be used for a fund for buying medical books for the hospital library.”
The same arrangement was in place with all hospitals in all countries which supplied pituitary glands to the company in the same period and was restricted to pituitary glands, said Dr Thomsen.
“The only other gland we are interested in is the pancreatic gland as it produces insulin, but we take it from pigs and cattle.”
Novo Nordisk was first asked by the Dunne Inquiry to supply information in 2001 and sent its first reply in October of that year, Dr Thomsen said. No one representing the company had been asked to give verbal evidence to the inquiry.
The inquiry yesterday refused to answer any questions about the controversy.
Irish Medical Organisation president Dr James Reilly expressed concern about the piecemeal manner in which information had come to public attention. “I would prefer that the full facts were put in front of us and we would have a full and open debate,” he said.
Two hospitals admit to supplying glands
Irish Examiner
By Caroline O'Doherty
24/08/04
TWO more hospitals have revealed they supplied pituitary glands from deceased patients to pharmaceutical companies, bringing to 22 the number of hospitals that have admitted their involvement so far.
The country's largest acute hospital, St James' in Dublin city centre, and St Vincent's University Hospital in South Dublin, both confirmed they supported the practice of using human glands to make growth hormone for the treatment of children with growth deficiencies.
Neither hospital would say how many deceased patients' bodies were used in this way or how many they had been able to positively identify so that the information could be passed to their next of kin.
St James' Hospital said it was common practice for the hospital to carry out post-mortem examinations on behalf of seven city hospitals from 1975, around the same time the harvesting of pituitary glands began.
Those hospitals included Sir Patrick Dun's, the Royal City of Dublin Hospital on Baggot Street, Mercers Hospital and Dr Steeven's Hospital, all of which were closed and had their services transferred to the St James' campus in the mid-1980s.
The other three hospitals were the Meath, the Adelaide and the National Children's Hospital, Harcourt Street, for which St James continued to carry out post mortems until they closed and re-opened as Tallaght Hospital in 1998.
From 1980, St James was also contracted to provide post-mortem services to four other smaller specialist hospitals: St Mary's, St Ita's, St Brendan's and Clon-skeagh. All post mortems were carried out at St James by trainee pathologists under the supervision of the Department of Pathology, Trinity College.
A spokesman said yesterday the number of hospitals involved and the scattering of post-mortem records presented difficulties for St James in terms of verifying statistics and the identities of the patients involved.
The hospital had provided all records and relevant information to the Dunne Inquiry on Post Mortem Procedures and was continuing to co-operate with the investigation. St Vincent's also said it had made full disclosures to the inquiry.
Novo Nordisk, one of two pharmaceutical companies who admitted involvement, said it was supplied by 32 hospitals.
The Health Department's helpline for people with questions about the organ retention controversy received over 100 calls by lunchtime yesterday.
The department, and the Eastern Regional Health Authority which is running the helpline, were unable to say how many calls were received in the afternoon. Newspaper advertisements will appear today with details of the helpline which can be contacted on 1800 45 45 00.
Hospitals received payment for removal of glands
Martin Wall
Irish Times
Tue, Aug 17, 04
Pathologists and hospitals were paid by a pharmaceutical company for removing and storing pituitary glands taken from dead patients during postmortem examinations and which were later used in the production of a growth hormone.
In a statement last night, Pharmacia Ireland said that one of its predecessor companies Kabi Vitrum Ltd had, in the 1980s, obtained pituitary glands from a number of hospitals to manufacture Crescormon, a human growth hormone.
"Kabi provided reimbursement to pathologists and hospitals for the work involved. The sum was intended solely to defray any additional costs required to remove and store the pituitary glands," the statement said.
A spokesman said that the amounts involved were small - about £1 or £2 per gland - and that the money went primarily to hospitals. However, a number of hospitals and health boards have denied that the practice occurred for monetary gain.
The Master of the Coombe Hospital, Dr Sean Daly, in a statement to The Irish Times last night suggested that hospitals had to donate pituitary glands to secure growth hormones for other patients at a time of global shortage.
The controversy over the removal of pituitary glands escalated yesterday as it was confirmed that more hospitals had engaged in the practice.
The representative group for those involved, Parents for Justice, expressed its shock at the revelations and strongly criticised the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, for his handling of the investigation into the issue.
It also demanded the abolition of the Dunne Inquiry which the Minister previously established to look into the organ retention controversy.
Parents for Justice chairwoman Ms Fionnuala O'Reilly said she wanted to know the identities of the pathologists who received money and of the contact person in the hospitals who could organise the dispatch of pituitary glands.
She said the inquiry into organ retention, headed by senior counsel Ms Anne Dunne, had been sitting for over three years, had cost more than E15 million and had so far produced no conclusions.
The new developments in the pituitary gland controversy arose from a second statement issued by Pharmacia Ireland to the Dunne Inquiry last May.
Based on this new information Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin last week told around 20 parents that organs taken from their children had been given to the pharmaceutical company.
The Irish Times revealed on Saturday that two former Dublin hospitals, the Richmond and Jervis Street, had also provided pituitary glands "for research" to the company. Over the weekend it emerged that pituitary glands were taken from patients at Cork University Hospital and the Coombe Hospital in Dublin. Last night, the Southern Health Board said that the practice had also occurred at Tralee General Hospital.
Pharmacia last night said that glands were obtained during postmortem examinations, consistent with prevailing medical standards. The pituitary glands were used to manufacture Crescormon, a growth hormone intended to help children with growth deficiency to reach normal adult height.
The practice ceased in the mid-1980s with the development of a synthetic component.
The Southern Health Board last night said that there were no financial transactions involved.
Dr Daly said he regretted that the practice had occurred without the consent of the parents. However, he said it was done for the best intentions and not for monetary gain.
"This was an international programme set up in response to a global shortage of growth hormones and each country received growth hormone protein pro rata to the level it had donated," he said.
However, a spokesman for Pharmacia Ireland last night denied that there had been any such arrangement.
[Link]
32 hospitals supplied glands, says firm
18 August 2004
RTÉ News
An international pharmaceutical firm, Novo-Nordisk, has told RTÉ News that 32 Irish hospitals supplied it with pituitary glands over a ten-year period.
The company said that 2,500 glands were sent to Denmark from Irish hospitals to manufacture human growth hormone for children. The glands were supplied between 1976 and 1986 and 'minor compensation' was paid to doctors and hospitals for the purchase of medical books, the company said.
It added that countries which supplied a large number of glands received a large number of growth hormone product, and Ireland benefited significantly from this arrangement.
Revelations at three more hospitals
Today, three more hospitals confirmed that they supplied glands from deceased children to the drugs firm.
In a statement this afternoon, the North Eastern Health Board confirmed that glands were supplied by Louth County Hospital in Dundalk and Our Lady's Hospital in Navan.
A number of pituitary glands were retained by Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, but were not supplied and were subsequently disposed of.
A spokesperson for the board said it had no idea of the numbers involved as no records had been kept. It is believed the practice existed from the late 1970s to around 1985.
The NEHB said it has been co-operating fully with the Dunne Inquiry and has furnished it with all details requested since 2002.
The South Eastern Health Board earlier confirmed that one of its hospitals was also involved in the practice.
The SEHB said that as part of the Dunne Inquiry it examined records but could find no details relating to the supply of pituitary glands to any drug company.
However, recent correspondence from the pharmaceutical firm shows that from 1978 to 1984 Waterford Regional Hospital provided around 50 glands for the manufacture of human growth hormone.
Both the NEHB and the SEHB say they regret the distress this information has caused to families and relatives, and have set up
confidential helplines. The SEHB can be contacted on 1800 300 6555. The number for the NEHB is 1850 24 1850.
Calls for Dunne to complete probe
Meanwhile, the organisation representing Irish pathologists has said that the Dunne Inquiry should be allowed to complete its work on the organ retention controversy.
A spokesperson for the Faculty of Irish Pathologists said it was fully co-operating with the inquiry.
The medical body said that the controversy over the supply of pituitary glands was complex and that the Dunne Inquiry was the best forum for it to be examined under.
[Link]
More hospitals in glands controversy
17 August 2004
RTÉ News
Another three hospitals have admitted that they supplied pituitary glands from deceased children to drugs firms in the late 1970s and early 80s.
It was confirmed this afternoon that hospitals in Cork, Tralee and Limerick were involved in the practice.
The announcement follows last week's revelation that Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Dublin wrote to around 20 parents to inform them that glands had been taken from their children.
The Coombe Women's Hospital in Dublin later said that it too had passed on pituitary glands to a drugs company.
The Southern Health Board said pituitary glands were given by Cork University Hospital to Kabi Vitrum, now known as Pharmacia.
Another company, Novo Nordisk, was given glands by Tralee Hospital. The glands were used to treat children with a growth hormone deficiency.
Cork University Hospital supplied about 75 glands, while Tralee General Hospital supplied 36. The Southern Health Board says neither hospital received remuneration.
All the cases occurred in the early 1980s and the Southern Health Board says no detailed records were kept by either hospital which would allow it to identify from which children the glands were taken.
The board says it has been co-operating fully with the Dunne Inquiry and has furnished the inquiry with all details requested since 2002. The Mid Western Health Board admitted that a number of pituitary glands were supplied by the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick to Kabi Vitrium in the late 1970s and early 80s.
In a statement, the board said a pathologist was paid a small sum in respect of each gland by the company, and that this money was used for textbooks and continuing medical education.
In line with the standards of the time, parental consent was not sought, and the arrangement ceased once an artificial form of growth hormone became available in the early 1980s.
The Mid Western Health Board also says it has co-operated fully with the Dunne Inquiry.
By Caroline O’Doherty
Friday, August 20, 2004
Irish Examiner
THE number of deceased patients whose pituitary glands were supplied to a Danish pharmaceutical firm was three times greater than revealed earlier this week. Novo Nordisk said yesterday it was supplied with 7,500 glands from hospitals over a 10-year period rather than the 2,500 it had earlier said it received.
A typing error in a briefing document prepared for a response to media queries was blamed for the mistake. The figure of 32 given for the number of hospitals which provided glands was correct.
Company chief science officer Dr Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen said the figures were correctly recorded in documentation the company supplied to the Dunne Inquiry, which is investigating the organ retention controversy.
Dr Thomsen said there were more adults than children among the 7,500 patients whose glands were supplied for use in the production of growth hormone Nanormon.
“There is some confusion about this. People tend to think that because it makes growth hormone, the pituitary gland is specific to children but, in fact, the vast majority donated to the company were from adults.
“Obviously people tend to pass on at a higher age, which means more deceased patients are adults but also the pituitary gland in a child is very small compared to an adult, so it produces less growth hormone.”
The practice of harvesting pituitary glands for hormone production ended in the mid-1980s when advances in biotechnology enabled scientists to make a synthetic substitute.
Prior to that, Novo Nordisk estimates it supplied the medical market in Ireland with a quantity of Nanormon sufficient to treat about 100 children a year for conditions relating to growth deficiency.
Dr Thomsen said the hospitals received a financial “contribution” of about e2 per gland “with the understanding that this would be used for a fund for buying medical books for the hospital library.”
The same arrangement was in place with all hospitals in all countries which supplied pituitary glands to the company in the same period and was restricted to pituitary glands, said Dr Thomsen.
“The only other gland we are interested in is the pancreatic gland as it produces insulin, but we take it from pigs and cattle.”
Novo Nordisk was first asked by the Dunne Inquiry to supply information in 2001 and sent its first reply in October of that year, Dr Thomsen said. No one representing the company had been asked to give verbal evidence to the inquiry.
The inquiry yesterday refused to answer any questions about the controversy.
Irish Medical Organisation president Dr James Reilly expressed concern about the piecemeal manner in which information had come to public attention. “I would prefer that the full facts were put in front of us and we would have a full and open debate,” he said.
Two hospitals admit to supplying glands
Irish Examiner
By Caroline O'Doherty
24/08/04
TWO more hospitals have revealed they supplied pituitary glands from deceased patients to pharmaceutical companies, bringing to 22 the number of hospitals that have admitted their involvement so far.
The country's largest acute hospital, St James' in Dublin city centre, and St Vincent's University Hospital in South Dublin, both confirmed they supported the practice of using human glands to make growth hormone for the treatment of children with growth deficiencies.
Neither hospital would say how many deceased patients' bodies were used in this way or how many they had been able to positively identify so that the information could be passed to their next of kin.
St James' Hospital said it was common practice for the hospital to carry out post-mortem examinations on behalf of seven city hospitals from 1975, around the same time the harvesting of pituitary glands began.
Those hospitals included Sir Patrick Dun's, the Royal City of Dublin Hospital on Baggot Street, Mercers Hospital and Dr Steeven's Hospital, all of which were closed and had their services transferred to the St James' campus in the mid-1980s.
The other three hospitals were the Meath, the Adelaide and the National Children's Hospital, Harcourt Street, for which St James continued to carry out post mortems until they closed and re-opened as Tallaght Hospital in 1998.
From 1980, St James was also contracted to provide post-mortem services to four other smaller specialist hospitals: St Mary's, St Ita's, St Brendan's and Clon-skeagh. All post mortems were carried out at St James by trainee pathologists under the supervision of the Department of Pathology, Trinity College.
A spokesman said yesterday the number of hospitals involved and the scattering of post-mortem records presented difficulties for St James in terms of verifying statistics and the identities of the patients involved.
The hospital had provided all records and relevant information to the Dunne Inquiry on Post Mortem Procedures and was continuing to co-operate with the investigation. St Vincent's also said it had made full disclosures to the inquiry.
Novo Nordisk, one of two pharmaceutical companies who admitted involvement, said it was supplied by 32 hospitals.
The Health Department's helpline for people with questions about the organ retention controversy received over 100 calls by lunchtime yesterday.
The department, and the Eastern Regional Health Authority which is running the helpline, were unable to say how many calls were received in the afternoon. Newspaper advertisements will appear today with details of the helpline which can be contacted on 1800 45 45 00.
Hospitals received payment for removal of glands
Martin Wall
Irish Times
Tue, Aug 17, 04
Pathologists and hospitals were paid by a pharmaceutical company for removing and storing pituitary glands taken from dead patients during postmortem examinations and which were later used in the production of a growth hormone.
In a statement last night, Pharmacia Ireland said that one of its predecessor companies Kabi Vitrum Ltd had, in the 1980s, obtained pituitary glands from a number of hospitals to manufacture Crescormon, a human growth hormone.
"Kabi provided reimbursement to pathologists and hospitals for the work involved. The sum was intended solely to defray any additional costs required to remove and store the pituitary glands," the statement said.
A spokesman said that the amounts involved were small - about £1 or £2 per gland - and that the money went primarily to hospitals. However, a number of hospitals and health boards have denied that the practice occurred for monetary gain.
The Master of the Coombe Hospital, Dr Sean Daly, in a statement to The Irish Times last night suggested that hospitals had to donate pituitary glands to secure growth hormones for other patients at a time of global shortage.
The controversy over the removal of pituitary glands escalated yesterday as it was confirmed that more hospitals had engaged in the practice.
The representative group for those involved, Parents for Justice, expressed its shock at the revelations and strongly criticised the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, for his handling of the investigation into the issue.
It also demanded the abolition of the Dunne Inquiry which the Minister previously established to look into the organ retention controversy.
Parents for Justice chairwoman Ms Fionnuala O'Reilly said she wanted to know the identities of the pathologists who received money and of the contact person in the hospitals who could organise the dispatch of pituitary glands.
She said the inquiry into organ retention, headed by senior counsel Ms Anne Dunne, had been sitting for over three years, had cost more than E15 million and had so far produced no conclusions.
The new developments in the pituitary gland controversy arose from a second statement issued by Pharmacia Ireland to the Dunne Inquiry last May.
Based on this new information Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin last week told around 20 parents that organs taken from their children had been given to the pharmaceutical company.
The Irish Times revealed on Saturday that two former Dublin hospitals, the Richmond and Jervis Street, had also provided pituitary glands "for research" to the company. Over the weekend it emerged that pituitary glands were taken from patients at Cork University Hospital and the Coombe Hospital in Dublin. Last night, the Southern Health Board said that the practice had also occurred at Tralee General Hospital.
Pharmacia last night said that glands were obtained during postmortem examinations, consistent with prevailing medical standards. The pituitary glands were used to manufacture Crescormon, a growth hormone intended to help children with growth deficiency to reach normal adult height.
The practice ceased in the mid-1980s with the development of a synthetic component.
The Southern Health Board last night said that there were no financial transactions involved.
Dr Daly said he regretted that the practice had occurred without the consent of the parents. However, he said it was done for the best intentions and not for monetary gain.
"This was an international programme set up in response to a global shortage of growth hormones and each country received growth hormone protein pro rata to the level it had donated," he said.
However, a spokesman for Pharmacia Ireland last night denied that there had been any such arrangement.
[Link]
32 hospitals supplied glands, says firm
18 August 2004
RTÉ News
An international pharmaceutical firm, Novo-Nordisk, has told RTÉ News that 32 Irish hospitals supplied it with pituitary glands over a ten-year period.
The company said that 2,500 glands were sent to Denmark from Irish hospitals to manufacture human growth hormone for children. The glands were supplied between 1976 and 1986 and 'minor compensation' was paid to doctors and hospitals for the purchase of medical books, the company said.
It added that countries which supplied a large number of glands received a large number of growth hormone product, and Ireland benefited significantly from this arrangement.
Revelations at three more hospitals
Today, three more hospitals confirmed that they supplied glands from deceased children to the drugs firm.
In a statement this afternoon, the North Eastern Health Board confirmed that glands were supplied by Louth County Hospital in Dundalk and Our Lady's Hospital in Navan.
A number of pituitary glands were retained by Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, but were not supplied and were subsequently disposed of.
A spokesperson for the board said it had no idea of the numbers involved as no records had been kept. It is believed the practice existed from the late 1970s to around 1985.
The NEHB said it has been co-operating fully with the Dunne Inquiry and has furnished it with all details requested since 2002.
The South Eastern Health Board earlier confirmed that one of its hospitals was also involved in the practice.
The SEHB said that as part of the Dunne Inquiry it examined records but could find no details relating to the supply of pituitary glands to any drug company.
However, recent correspondence from the pharmaceutical firm shows that from 1978 to 1984 Waterford Regional Hospital provided around 50 glands for the manufacture of human growth hormone.
Both the NEHB and the SEHB say they regret the distress this information has caused to families and relatives, and have set up
confidential helplines. The SEHB can be contacted on 1800 300 6555. The number for the NEHB is 1850 24 1850.
Calls for Dunne to complete probe
Meanwhile, the organisation representing Irish pathologists has said that the Dunne Inquiry should be allowed to complete its work on the organ retention controversy.
A spokesperson for the Faculty of Irish Pathologists said it was fully co-operating with the inquiry.
The medical body said that the controversy over the supply of pituitary glands was complex and that the Dunne Inquiry was the best forum for it to be examined under.
[Link]
More hospitals in glands controversy
17 August 2004
RTÉ News
Another three hospitals have admitted that they supplied pituitary glands from deceased children to drugs firms in the late 1970s and early 80s.
It was confirmed this afternoon that hospitals in Cork, Tralee and Limerick were involved in the practice.
The announcement follows last week's revelation that Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Dublin wrote to around 20 parents to inform them that glands had been taken from their children.
The Coombe Women's Hospital in Dublin later said that it too had passed on pituitary glands to a drugs company.
The Southern Health Board said pituitary glands were given by Cork University Hospital to Kabi Vitrum, now known as Pharmacia.
Another company, Novo Nordisk, was given glands by Tralee Hospital. The glands were used to treat children with a growth hormone deficiency.
Cork University Hospital supplied about 75 glands, while Tralee General Hospital supplied 36. The Southern Health Board says neither hospital received remuneration.
All the cases occurred in the early 1980s and the Southern Health Board says no detailed records were kept by either hospital which would allow it to identify from which children the glands were taken.
The board says it has been co-operating fully with the Dunne Inquiry and has furnished the inquiry with all details requested since 2002. The Mid Western Health Board admitted that a number of pituitary glands were supplied by the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick to Kabi Vitrium in the late 1970s and early 80s.
In a statement, the board said a pathologist was paid a small sum in respect of each gland by the company, and that this money was used for textbooks and continuing medical education.
In line with the standards of the time, parental consent was not sought, and the arrangement ceased once an artificial form of growth hormone became available in the early 1980s.
The Mid Western Health Board also says it has co-operated fully with the Dunne Inquiry.
here this is for the longest post ever 
