February 25, 2000 
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| February 25, 2000 | atimes.com | |
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| Japan Former drug firm chiefs jailed for selling tainted blood TOKYO - Three former presidents of Japan's defunct Green Cross Corp have been given prison terms by the Osaka District Court for selling HIV-infected blood that caused the death of a man in Osaka. Green Cross was absorbed by Yoshitomi Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd in April 1998. Renzo Matsushita was sentenced to two years in prison, Tadakazu Suyama got 18 months and Takehiko Kawano 16 months. The presiding judge said the three failed to stop the sale of untreated blood products even though they were aware the blood could be tainted with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The ruling said the former presidents put profit ahead of people's safety. They continued shipping the untreated products even after Green Cross released safe, heated blood products in January 1986. Three months later, a man suffering from a liver ailment was infected by HIV-tainted blood. He died in 1995. (Asia Pulse/Nikkei) | |||||||||
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