Vera Sharav

Vera Sharav, a medical activist, is the founder of the Alliance for Human Research Protection and an activist against some practices of the biomedical industry, particularly in matters of patient consent and children. Sharav was born April 17, 1937 in Romania as Vera Roll and survived the Holocaust as a child; her father did not survive. Her mother emigrated to the United States while she was cared for by relatives; she rejoined her mother in New York City when she was 8. She attended City College of New York and studied art history and after marriage and two children she went back to school, to the Pratt Institute, where in 1971 she received her master's in library science.Sharav became an activist against aspects of biomedical research after her teenage son died of a reaction to clozapine, which he had been prescribed for schizoaffective disorder. In her blog she criticizes the industry saying it is profit-driven, lies to its consumers and misleads people into participating in trials it pretends are medical treatment. Of particular interest to her are the waivers of informed consent issued by the Food and Drug Administration, which allow unconscious or incapacitated subjects to be tested.Her criticism of clinical studies where patient consent is questionable led her to campaign against Northfield Laboratories, manufacturers of the blood substitute PolyHeme; she filed complaints and started an email campaign which led the media and then the US Senate to investigate the matter. Sharav claimed the product was toxic and that the people and communities on which it was tested had not been properly informed of the risks.