Through the eyes of survivors and family members, BAD BLOOD chronicles how a "miracle" treatment for hemophilia became an agent of death for 10,000 Americans. Faced with evidence that pharmaceutical companies and government regulators knew the product was contaminated, they launch a powerful and inspiring fight to right the system that failed them and to make it safer for all. BAD BLOOD is a seventy-minute documentary film intended for national broadcast on public television; the national festival circuit; DVD distribution in retail, educational, and health markets; a grassroots outreach campaign within the hemophilia, medical, and consumer advocacy communities; and will also feature an informative companion website with a teaching guide. *** In the 1960s, Factor concentrates, a revolutionary new treatment for hemophilia (a blood-clotting disorder), were put on the market. Derived from blood, the medicine transformed hemophilia from a fatal disease to a chronic condition, and was considered so beneficial that it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) despite known risks of viral contamination, including the near-certainty of infection with hepatitis - and despite the fact that the process by which it was made, the pooling of blood from thousands of donors, was otherwise outlawed. That this was not an "acceptable risk" was not fully understood until the 1980s, when a deadly, unknown virus began to affect mostly gay, urban men - and then showed up in the hemophilia community, raising concern that the virus was in the nation's blood supply. Yet even as HIV was identified, hemophiliacs dependent on multiple doses of Factor concentrates each day were advised to keep using them. By the time the medicine was pulled from the market, 10,000 hemophiliacs had been infected with HIV, and 15,000 with hepatitis C; it was the worst medically-induced disaster in U.S. history. How had this happened, and what would prevent something like it from happening again? As the hemophilia community realized the extent to which the government had been lax in overseeing pharmaceutical companies, and the extent to which the safety of patients figured last in the equation of costs, benefits, and profits, they began to fight back. They demanded representation on regulatory panels, argued for greater separation between regulators and industry, and positioned themselves as guardians of the nation's blood supply. BAD BLOOD is a cautionary tale that recounts this troubled but inspiring history and challenges viewers to their own vigilance. We hear from doctors and nurses, investigative reporters, drug company executives, and government scientists. News stories and outtakes spanning five decades reveal disturbing pharmaceutical industry practices including drug addicts selling their blood in seedy collection centers, and stomach-turning footage of thousands of units of blood being pooled into huge vats. But what gives this film its greatest power are the stories of survivors and their families, who rose up to demand change. But when their inspiring stories take an unexpected turn the stakes are raised for everyone who uses pharmaceuticals today. In telling this story BAD BLOOD hopes to humanize this important and under-reported medical disaster and stimulate further and much-needed public debate about the government's role and effectiveness in regulating the pharmaceutical industry today.

In 1999, Matthew Kleiner, a childhood friend, suggested that I make a film about how he and 70% of the hemophiliacs in the U.S. had been infected with HIV, and 100% with hepatitis, from FDA-approved medication on which they were dependent.  Diagnosed with hemophilia as a toddler and with HIV while in high school, Matthew had "come out" as an activist during his undergraduate years at Cornell, at a time when AIDS (and because of it, hemophilia) carried tremendous stigma. By 1999, he had narrowly escaped death from an AIDS-related infection, and he felt strongly that not enough was being done to alert people to the ongoing issues that this crisis raised: Was the FDA too closely aligned to the pharmaceutical industry to effectively regulate medicines? Was the argument that pharmaceutical companies needed to be profitable in order to research and develop new treatments sufficient to justify the ways in which they made (and continue to make) cost-cutting decisions affecting patient safety - particularly when patients had no alternative treatment?    As I spoke with Matt, I understood that this was not just the story of the greatest medically-induced disaster in U.S. history - one that would cost 10,000 lives - but a cautionary tale that has continued to play out in news stories about Vioxx, Baycol, and more recently, Tylenol, whose dangers come to light long after they've been marketed to consumers. Matt's story also offered a new and important lens through which to view the HIV/AIDS crises. Entirely dependent on medicine derived from donated human blood, hemophiliacs are the canaries in our public health system: their safety is our safety. Failure to adequately patrol the collection and processing of blood had dire consequences in the 1980s and 1990s. The blood supply is today free of both HIV and hepatitis, but how prepared are we to identify and stop the next source of infection?    When Matthew died in 2003, the film took on a new urgency and a new, wider focus. I slowly built relationships within the hemophilia community, gaining access to new investigative findings, rarely seen footage and photographs, and most importantly, to other patients and families and their medical caregivers. This community, along with government and industry, is understandably guarded, having been through a decade of litigation. But by 2007, with support from leaders in the hemophilia community, I gained access to government scientists and regulators, and eventually even the pharmaceutical companies agreed to participate - some of them speaking publicly for the first time - because they, too, see BAD BLOOD as the seminal documentary covering this crisis.    The film builds on my experience in both social issue and historical documentary, employing techniques including interviews, archival materials, verite footage, impressionistic recreations, and a haunting musical score. Emerging from tragedy, I hope, is a story of caution and inspiration, as victims of medical disaster fight to change the systems that failed them. It is time. It is important. And we are almost done! Please help us tell the story of the 10,000 hemophiliacs infected with HIV.