OXFORD GRADUATE DIES AFTER SISTER INJECTS HER WITH THE FAMILY FIRM’S ‘ANTI-AGE’ DRUG
By Emily Andrews

192950/Oxford-graduate-dies-sister-injects-family- firms-anti-age-drug.html
15th June 2009

An Oxford University graduate died after being injected with an
experimental anti-ageing drug by her sister, a GP.

Yolanda Cox, 22, suffered a massive allergic reaction after being
given three times the normal dose as part of a test of the unlicensed
drug invented by their mother.

Mrs Cox had been married for just nine months when she agreed to
be a guinea pig for the drug, which the family also believed to be
effective against cancer and diabetes.

Keen rower: Yolanda Cox was healthy before the jab Both she and her
sister, Dr Yvonne Pambakian, worked for Amro Biotech, a pharmaceutical
company set up by their mother, pathologist Dr Apri Matossian-Rogers.

It had spent more than £3million developing the drug, known as B71,
when Mrs Cox, who had been mistakenly diagnosed with polycystic
ovary syndrome, agreed to trial it in the belief that it might also
combat that.

Mrs Cox, a keen rower, collapsed after receiving the drug at the
family’s home in Hampstead, North London.

She died two years ago but the case has only become public because
of the inquest into her death last week at St Pancras Coroner’s Court.

The court heard that Dr Pambakian, 38, had been arrested on suspicion
o f manslaughter but the Crown Prosecution Service never brought any
charges and police say they are not reopening the case.

Deeply religious: Dr Yvonne Pambakian, left, and her mother leaving
the inquest Hospital doctors and paramedics said the family resisted
requests to give them information about the drug even when Mrs Cox
was in intensive care, the inquest heard.

Dr Alexander Mackay, of the Royal Free Hospital, said: ‘The family were
extremely reluctant to go into detail about the drug. They wouldn’t
say what was in it, and said I didn’t need to know anything and the
drug was extremely safe.

‘I said "Yolanda is extremely unwell" and I asked for a sample of
the drug.

Some time later the family brought in paper information in two files.’

Mrs Cox’s husband, Patrick, 24, said his wife had initially complained
about itchiness in her arm after the jab.

‘Two minutes later she was inside sitting on the sofa and she was
struggling for breath,’ said Mr Cox, who has a Masters degree in
biochemistry from Oxford University.

‘They wouldn’t say what was in it’ Hospital tests carried out against
her relatives’ wishes revealed that Mrs Cox’s brain was irreversibly
damaged. Four days later her life support machine was turned off,
despite threats of legal action from her family.

Dr Pambakian told the inquest she had previously injected herself
and her mother.

The inquest heard that the deeply r eligious family would pray before
each injection and that Dr Pambakian did not know the exact dose
because they were not measured.

A terminal cancer patient had also been given the drug, the inquest
heard.

Catherine Clayton, who had been given eight weeks to live, survived for
a year but died after being prevented from taking the drug following
Mrs Cox’s death.

Dr Pambakian was suspended from practising for more than a year by
the General Medical Council and is currently banned from prescribing
drugs while an investigation is completed into her conduct.

Dr Andrew Reid, the coroner, recorded a verdict of misadventure after
accepting that the death was an unintentional result of the injection.