Linda <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>> So, I have a few questions for Linda:
> 
> Here are my answers........
> 
>> What proportion of the milk donated to the IMBP is used for profit
and what
>> proportion is donated to Africa?
> Would suggest you ask IBMP for the answer to this, we receive the proportion
> donated to Africa.

A press release dated yesterday suggests it's the same as before: one
quarter of the altruistically donated milk is shipped out for the IBMP;
three quarters is retained by Prolacta, processed, and sold for profit
or used for commercial/IP research within the USA.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101201006869/en/Prolacta-Bioscie
nce-Announces-Renewed-Agreement-International-Breast

This is buried in fine print at the IBMP site; their front page is
highly suggestive that donated milk is used for infants in Africa,
Haiti, the Philippines, etc.

Where information on milk retained by Prolacta is present in the
subpages, the for-profit and commercial research/patenting aspects are
glossed over or omitted entirely. Examples:

http://www.breastmilkproject.org/hiw_donationdiagram.php

"The milk you donate will be used in two ways. The milk that goes to
South Africa will help orphaned, premature, sick or hungry babies in
orphan homes and hospitals. The milk that stays in the U.S. with
Prolacta will be used to create nutritional therapies for critically-ill
premature infants. [...] The remaining 75 percent will remain in the
United States to be used to make a human-milk-derived Human Milk
Fortifier for critically ill and premature infants in neonatal intensive
care units. [...] It also helps moms provide milk for both infants in
Africa and the U.S., a win-win situation."

http://www.breastmilkproject.org/hiw_faq.php?section=3

"The milk that was not applied toward the international shipments was
processed by Prolacta to make the only available human milk fortifier
made from 100% human milk, H2MF, for premature and critically ill babies
in neonatal intensive care units in the U.S. [...] Moms who donated to
the project were required to check a box saying that they understood
that 75% of donated milk would remain with Prolacta for critically-ill
infants in the U.S. "

This is the closest mention of profit that I can find:

"Prolacta, the company that processed our milk through 2009, is a small,
start-up bioscience company. Like any for-profit company, they hope to
make a profit off of their products and research. Prolacta has not made
a profit to date; however, the hope is that there is enough profit in
the future for Prolacta to continue to increase their support of the
programs that benefit infants around the world through donor breast
milk."

The IBMP has disclosure about mining donated milk for patents at all,
unless someone with better eagle eyes than mine can find it. This is a
practice that large numbers of people have significant ethical issues
with. For that reason alone the disclosure should be VERY clear and up
front.

For any information on this you need to go to the Prolacta site, and dig
very deep into downloadable information documents, where you will find
this level of disclosure:

"A small portion of your donated milk may be used for ongoing research
related to levels of disease-fighting components and other projects
designed to help improve outcomes for preterm and critically ill
babies."

The last snippet of disclosure I can find is buried even deeper in the
last paragraph of the consent document on the National Milk Bank
website:

https://breastmilkfirst.org/donors/mb_consent.pdf

"All interests to any scientific findings, technology or proprietary
developments made with your milk are hereby waived by you."

Lara Hopkins

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