Trial into French growth hormone scandal begins

By Thierry Leveque

PARIS (Reuters) - Seven French former medical officials went on trial on Wednesday after a 17 year-long investigation into contaminated growth hormones that caused the death of more than 100 people from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The doctors and pharmacists face maximum terms varying from 3 to 10 years if convicted. They face charges of aggravated deception, manslaughter and causing unintentional injury.

The case, which carries echoes of a separate scandal over HIV contaminated blood transfusions in the 1990s, centres on a programme to treat children affected by short stature with growth hormones extracted from human pituitary glands.

More than 100 people on the programme died after being contaminated with the rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which attacks the brain, causing rapid dementia and death.

The connection between Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and the pituitary gland was established in 1990. The United States withdrew the hormone States in 1985 following three deaths.

Luc Montagnier, the French scientist who identified the AIDS virus, warned colleagues at the Pasteur Institute in a 1980 note that the hormone they were extracting from the pituitary gland could be a carrier of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

He advised special care should be taken when buying glands to produce the treatment.

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