Super Genius DNA

Chapter 189: Micro-dust (5)

There were two conditions under which He Jiankui’s human experiment could be excused. One was that he didn’t know the side effects of modifying CCR5 in an embryo, which was almost certain. CCR5 became famous for its role as the infection route of HIV, and there were already people who had natural mutations in CCR5. He Jiankui probably thought it was a relatively safe target as there were so many people born with that mutation. Plus, A-Bio was already treating AIDS through CCR5 manipulation, though it wasn’t in developing embryos.

The other condition was that the CCR5 blockers on the market didn’t work, meaning the other option for these genetically engineered babies was difficult.

‘I didn’t really know this either.’

Young-Joon opened the documents that Park Joo-Hyuk sent him in his office. There were a total of thirty-three documents related to the lawsuit.

This case was about the clinical trials of a treatment called Glaxoviroc, which was once sold by a Taiwanese pharmaceutical company called Atmox. It was believed that the HIV would not be transmitted from the mother to the fetus when this treatment was administered to the mother. The success rate was reported to be one hundred percent, but there were recent cases of failure.

Young-Joon slowly read through the documents, then called Park Joo-Hyuk as even Rosaline’s powers couldn’t interpret law terminology.

“This case is still in the Supreme Court. In the first trial, the court found Atmox negligent and ordered them to provide compensation for damages, but it was overturned in the court of appeals,” Park Joo-Hyuk explained.

“The concentration and the number of administrations of Glaxoviroc were different for this clinical trial, right?” Young-Joon asked.

Park Joo-Hyuk nodded.

“Originally, it’s supposed to be administered once a week starting from the fifth week of the pregnancy,” Park Joo-Hyuk said. “But in that clinical case trial, Atmox developed a new way of administering Glaxoviroc, and they tested it on patients at a hospital owned by Atmox. Atmox claims that the patient’s consent was fully obtained and they understood everything.”

“It’s supposed to be given once every week, but they got consent and didn’t use it at all. Instead, they administered a ten-fold dose once every week for the last three weeks?”

“Well, Atmox is claiming that it was a properly conducted clinical trial. They predicted it would be successful, but it just happened to fail.”

Atmox was trying to change a drug that was traditionally administered continuously throughout the pregnancy to one that would only be administered near the delivery date. Young-Joon could understand this direction of research. The less number of administrations was always good for the patient as it meant fewer trips to the hospital and less chance of side effects. And a new drug always had a chance of failure. It was tragic that the new administration method of Glaxoviroc failed, but that wasn’t something that the pharmaceutical company should be blamed for.

“The question is whether the patient was aware of the old and safer administration method of Glaxoviroc,” Young-Joon said.

“Yeah, and that’s where the victim’s and Atmox’s statements differ. The victim says she wasn’t told anything, saying what kind of crazy mother would intentionally take a chance when her child’s life depended on it. Of course, Atmox says it was all explained.”

“Wasn’t there an informed consent form?”

“The consent form was signed by the patient, but it was filled with all kinds of medical jargon that she couldn’t understand. She says that when they explained it to her verbally, they didn’t mention that there were other ways to administer it.”

“A clinical trial that the subjects don’t understand is illegal,” Young-Joon said.

“In principle, yes, but their opponent is a pretty big pharmaceutical company and they are powerless citizens. Just making the case go onto the Supreme Court is going to make every day a living hell for the victim.”

“...”

Young-Joon turned on his computer. He typed “P” into the search bar. Then, the web address of a website he visited often popped up.

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