Infected Blood: Fighting Pharmaceutical Scandal

For the past three years, journalist Cara McGoogan has been investigating how 1,250 British people with haemophilia were infected with HIV by their 'miracle' treatment in the 1980s – and the cover-up that ensued. Her research for her new book, The Poison Line: A True Story of Death, Deception and Infected Blood, led her to American lawyer Tom Mull. He and his wife Lorraine uncovered how pharmaceutical companies were collecting plasma for Factor VIII in prisons, on Skid Row and outside gay nightclubs then pooling tens of thousands of donations together to make just one batch of treatment. Along with a catalogue of shocking mistakes and negligence, the Mulls secured a jury decision against two of the pharma companies who made Factor VIII and significant compensation for 124 of some 40,000 people with haemophilia worldwide who contracted HIV from this dangerous 'wonder drug'. To mark the publication of The Poison Line and a rare trip to London from Hawaii for the Mulls, Cara and Tom will join FT global health editor Sarah Neville in conversation about the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history.

Sarah Neville: Sarah Neville is the FT's global health editor. She covers the NHS, and healthcare developments around the world. In more than 22 years at the FT, she has held a variety of editing and reporting roles including weekend news editor, analysis editor, UK news editor, public policy editor and global pharmaceuticals editor. Immediately before joining the FT she spent a decade reporting on Westminster, latterly as political editor of the Yorkshire Post. In 1995 she was awarded the Laurence Stern Fellowship at the Washington Post.

Cara McGoogan: Cara McGoogan is the author of The Poison Line: A True Story of Death, Deception and Infected Blood. She is the writer and host of the award-winning documentary podcast Bed of Lies, in which she investigates major British scandals. McGoogan has won two Society of Editors' Press Awards, a Media Freedom Award and a British Journalism Award. In 2022, she was awarded the Stern-Bryan Fellowship at the Washington Post, which is given annually to Britain's best early-career journalist. McGoogan is the Telegraph's first Narrative Audio Journalist.

Tom Mull: Tom Mull is a trailblazing lawyer who hails from Hawaii via Louisiana. Working tirelessly with his wife Lorraine for a decade, his firm Mull & Mull got a significant ruling against the pharmaceutical companies that made a 'miracle' treatment for haemophilia called Factor VIII, which was infected with HIV. Their work led to an apology from the pharma companies Alpha, Armour, Baxter and Bayer, as well as a $120 million settlement for 124 families.

Gary Webster: Gary Webster a British survivor who went to the boarding school Treloar's, where 122 children with haemophilia were infected with HIV. He is now the lead claimant in a legal case former pupils are taking against the school.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, London, United Kingdom