Exhibit 111

The SV-40 Virus: Has Tainted Polio Vaccine Caused an Increase in Cancer? (Serial No. 108-85)

Exhibit 111 · Congressional hearing transcript

The SV-40 Virus: Has Tainted Polio Vaccine Caused an Increase in Cancer? (Serial No. 108-85)

They did contain SV-40 because there are test results that I have, which now the committee has, that show the positive vacuolating agent in released product.

James Goedert of the National Cancer Institute testified that in 1961 Bernice Eddy detected cancer in newborn hamsters injected with the vaccine preparation, and that "since 1963 every lot of vaccine has been tested and certified as free of SV-40." He testified that Howard Strickler was a former postdoctoral fellow from his branch with whom the branch had collaborated until recently. Barbara Loe Fisher testified that contaminated Salk stocks continued to be given to American children until early 1963, and that the major oral vaccine maker did not adequately test its master seed stocks. Attorney Stanley Kops testified that Wyeth-Lederle held 84 percent of the oral polio vaccine market in 1964–67 and that test results in his possession showed SV40 in released product.

Source: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness
Date: 10 September 2003
Quoted from: House Government Reform Committee hearing (CHRG-108hhrg91047), 10 September 2003, testimony of Stanley P. Kops, second panel
Grade: Primary record
Document: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-108hhrg91047/html/CHRG-108hhrg91047.htm
Accessed: 2026-11-09
Cited by: Findings citing this exhibit
Note: Testimony by witnesses other than federal officials is graded as reported where a finding rests on it.

Cited by

Finding MED-7.2: Reported Federal officials knew by 1960 that polio vaccine carried SV40. They ordered new lots screened in 1961, recalled no existing stock, and certified every lot free of the virus only from 1963.
Finding MED-7.4: Primary record The Institute of Medicine found the evidence inadequate to accept or reject a link between contaminated polio vaccine and cancer. It found strong evidence that SV40 is a transforming virus and contaminated some 1955 to 1963 polio vaccine, and moderate evidence that vaccine exposure caused human SV40 infection.
Finding MED-7.5: Reported Testimony to Congress in 2003 stated that some oral polio vaccine released between 1964 and 1967 still contained SV40.
Finding MED-8.8: Open question Whether SV40 from contaminated polio vaccine caused cancer in people has never been settled.