Japanese Firm Mishandles Deadly ‘Biological Warfare’ Toxin

Criminal pharma firm previously embroiled in HIV scandal

Japan’s health ministry is investigating the pharmaceutical firm Chemo-Sero-Therapeutic Research Institute (aka, Kaketsuken) over its suspected mishandling of a potentially deadly toxin botulinum that can be used for biological warfare.

The botulinum toxin (BTX) is a neurotoxic protein produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum and several other related species. It is also produced commercially for medical, cosmetic, and other uses. BTX is the most poisonous biological toxin known to science, natural or synthetic, and can cause a severe flaccid paralytic disease in humans and other mammals, with a lethal dose of as little as 1.3 nanogram per kilogram (ng/kg) in humans.

The firm was found to be in violation of the official transportation rules on at least four separate occasions since 2007, said the ministry spokesman.

HIV-contaminated blood products
Kaketsuken was illegally manufacturing blood products for about 40 years, while falsifying documents to allow it to take shortcuts.

“The company was sued in 1989 by HIV-infected hemophiliacs for receiving tainted products. The lawsuit wasn’t settled however until 1996, when both the government and the Kaketsuken-linked companies paid 45 million yen (370,000 U.S. dollars) to each plaintiff,” said a report.

“Kaketsuken’s malpractice caused 2,000 hemophiliacs to contract HIV from unheated blood products but their systematic falsification of documents continued long after the settlement, the panel found.

“Kaketsuken is one of Japan’s oldest manufacturers of blood products and vaccines.”