Philadelphia apologizes for experiments on Black inmates

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The city of Philadelphia issued an apology more than four decades after unethical medical experiments were allowed to be performed on mostly Black inmates at the city’s since closed Holmesburg Prison from the 1950s to the 1970s. The dermatological, biochemical and pharmaceutical experiments were performed by University of Pennsylvania researcher Dr. Albert Kligman and intentionally exposed the inmates to viruses like herpes, to fungus, asbestos and chemical agents like dioxin. The University of Pennsylvania issued an apology last year and removed Kligman’s name from several honorifics. Kligman, who would go on to pioneer Retin-A, died in 2010.