DoD, Congress Investigate Human Tissue Buys

DoD, Congress Investigate Human Tissue Buys
Sep 05, 2012
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan

Congress and the Defense Department have begun investigations into the purchase of biologic medicines and implants after learning that military and veterans hospitals bought products from a company whose supplier was convicted of illegally harvesting human tissue from cadavers.

Defense Department officials have also ordered the services to set up a new system to better oversee and track the biologics – medical products made from bone, skin, arteries and tendons. Doctors use biologics in a wide range of procedures to include surgeries and treatments for burns.

Military and Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals bought biologics from a company called RTI Biologics at a time that one of their suppliers, Biomedical Tissue Services, was convicted of harvesting tissue from illegally acquired cadavers. Military officials have started to review purchase orders to determine if, and when, it bought biologics from RTI, or its Germany-based subsidiary, Tutogen GmbH.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists completed a series on the world tissue trade in July highlighting questions over tissues potentially obtained by Tutogen in Ukraine.
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