Made in The Dominican Republic

Cutter Biological, unit of Bayer AG, apparently sold millions of dollars of blood-clotting medicine for hemophiliacs that carried high risk of transmitting AIDS to Asia and Latin America in mid-1980's, while selling new, safer product in West; Cutter Biological introduced its safer medicine in Feb 1984 as evidence mounted that earlier version, Factor VIII, was infecting hemophiliacs with HIV; company continued to sell old medicine overseas; records show Cutter officials were trying to avoid being stuck with large stores of product that was proving increasingly unmarketable in US and Europe; show company continued to make old medicine for several months after it began selling new product; telex from Cutter to distributor suggests motive: that Cutter had several fixed-price contracts and believed old product, which was not heated, would be cheaper to produce; precise human toll of these marketing decisions two decades ago may be impossible to document now; in Hong Kong and Taiwan alone, more than 100 hemophiliacs got HIV after using Cutter's old medicine, and many have since died; Cutter continued to sell older product after Feb 1984 in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and Argentina; figures are from Cutter documents produced in connection with lawsuits filed by American hemophiliacs; Bayer issues statement defending Cutter, saying company continued to sell old medicine because some customers doubted new drug's effectiveness, and some countries were slow to approve its sale; in US, AIDS was passed on to thousands of hemophiliacs, many of whom died, before new product was developed; Bayer and three other companies, while admitting no wrongdoing, have paid hemophiliacs about $600 million to settle more than 15 years of lawsuits; photos; chronology of events