River_Blindness

River Blindness In 1978 William C. Campbell approached Roy Vagelos his laboratory director for approval to develop a drug that similar to Ivermectin that would be acceptable for human use, used to kill worms in cattle and other types of animals that could kill the microorganism that causes River Blindness. Vagelos knew that by approving this project he was exposing Merck and its share holders to a drug that could not be sold, because the majority of people who needed the drug could not afford it. He also knew if he did not approve the project he would be standing in the way of perhaps wiping out a dreadful disease. Vagelos was staring a major moral dilemma right in the face. River Blindness was immediately identified in 1893 but, by the 1970’s more than 85 million people were at risk to be infected in 35 developing countries Africa, Latin America, and Mexico. The World Health Organization (WHO) was already taking measures to try and control the humpbacked Black Fly which is the carrier of the disease. The Black Fly carries the disease much like a mosquito with malaria, it bites a person infected with malaria and then bites an uninfected person thus spreading river, blindness, drug, vagelos, merck, world, people, money, needed, mectizan, ivermectin, given, campbell, approval, time, through, made, knew, human, disease, development, decisions, company, began, away, again, about, wrote, without, way, very, two, try, took, testing, similar