08/19/2026
The Science is Settled has to be the most unscientific statement ever.
In the mid-1980s, Bayer's Cutter Laboratories sold HIV- and hepatitis-contaminated Factor VIII blood-clotting concentrates in Latin America and Asia. After stopping the sale of the unheated product in the United States when safer heat-treated versions arrived, the division continued exporting older, high-risk inventories overseas, resulting in hundreds of HIV infections in Latin America.
Background and Timeline: Early 1980s: Factor VIII was pooled from plasma collected from thousands of donors, including high-risk groups like prisoners.1984: U.S. regulators and manufacturers developed a heat-treatment method to kill HIV in blood products, and new safer versions were introduced.
Overseas Sales: Unheated and potentially tainted concentrate inventories were continued to be sold to international markets, including Latin American nations, rather than being destroyed.
Impact and Response Infections: Lawsuits and medical studies linked the exported unheated concentrates to at least 700 HIV infections among hemophiliacs in Latin America, alongside thousands more in Asia, Europe, and the U.S.
Company Defense: Bayer defended its actions by stating that the decisions followed the scientific knowledge and regulatory standards of the early 1980s.
Legal Settlements: While admitting no wrongdoing, Bayer and other implicated pharmaceutical companies eventually paid hundreds of millions of dollars over the decades to settle U.S. and international lawsuits brought by affected hemophiliacs.
