profitting from the sick.

A HOSPITAL porter yesterday tried to cash in on the misery of the drug trial victims.
Callous Ayman Shalash offered to take secret photographs of the stricken patients in their beds for £2,000.

He told our reporter: "I can get in the intensive care units no problem because I'm staff. But I want two grand.
"I'll get the sack but I don't care. I'll get you a picture of the one that looks like the Elephant Man. But I want cash."
His vile move came as six men remained in intensive care last night, two of them in critical condition.

It is possible they may not fully recover, but four of them yesterday gave relatives hope by communicating with sign language.
While investigations into what went wrong intensified last night, a solicitor acting for one patient said there was confusion over whether the drug had been successfully tested on animals. The company later stated tests had been successful.
Shalash - a part-time worker at the Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, West London, where the horror happened - approached our reporter outside the main entrance.
Describing his plan, he said: "I can take plenty of pictures. I'll hide the phone under my arm and then just do it. Click, click.

"It'll be easy. I can get pictures of the ward with the victims. I can get you the one that looks like the Elephant Man but I want more for that. He'll make a good picture."
Shalash, a student in his mid 20s from Cricklewood, North London, darted behind a tree after spotting his boss drive past.

He exclaimed: "I don't care if I lose my job, it's s**t anyway. If you pay me a couple of grand it's worth it, I'll just get another job. This is too good an opportunity to miss." Meanwhile, Ann Alexander - a lawyer for the 29-year-old victim with the severely swollen head - raised fears over the safety of the trial drug, developed to treat leukaemia and rheumatism.
She said: "There is confusion about whether the drug had actually been tested successfully and safely on animals before tests on these volunteers. It's very early days, but I'm very concerned about the lack of information received and the inconsistency of it."

But the chief scientific officer of TeGenero - the German firm which makes the TGN1412 drug - dismissed claims animals had died in earlier tests. Thomas Hanke said: "We saw no drug-related adverse events in the animals and there were no drug-related deaths."
One critical patient is Ryan Wilson, 21, of Highbury, North London, whose head has swollen to three times its normal size.

Experts around the world have united in the desperate search for a cure. TeGenero has flown in 20 doctors to help the medical team.