Whistleblower: Uganda AIDS Study Bungled (Africans don't matter)

[leftchick]

:(

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=14&u=/ap/20050104/ap_on_go_ot/aids_drug_whistleblower

~snip~

WASHINGTON - A U.S.-funded study on an AIDS (news - web sites) drug was so poorly conducted that it potentially put the lives of hundreds of mothers and babies in Uganda at risk, a government whistleblower said Tuesday.

Dr. Jonathan Fishbein said officials at the National Institutes of Health (news - web sites) overlooked problems with the way the study was conducted on the drug, nevirapine, which was being used to protect babies in Africa from HIV (news - web sites) infection during birth.

Fishbein testified before a panel of scientists at the independent Institute of Medicine (news - web sites). NIH, which maintains that the drug is safe in single doses, asked the institute to conduct the review.

In his testimony, Fishbein accused NIH of a double standard, saying the project in Uganda would not have passed muster with federal health officials in the United States.


"The actions of the NIH reveal a callous indifference to the fate of Africans," Fishbein said. "African life, it would appear, is not to be valued as highly as American life."

[hippiechick]

1. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1121495

[Pirate Smile]

2. Unbelievable. Is it only important to get $ for the drug companies?

:wtf:

[Liberal Veteran]

3. I'm not sure why they used viramune anyway....

AZT has been proven to prevent perinatal transmission in close to 70% of cases. It's likely to be a LOT cheaper and more easily available than nevirapine in addition to having less chance of fatal side effects over the short term.

Also, using nevirapine in mono-therapy is a BAD idea from the start since it is an NNRTI.

The bad in that is that becoming resistant to ANY NNRTI class of antiviral pretty much limits any possibility of using that class of drugs in any other regimen which leaves you will basically the choices of an NRTI and PI based regimen as first line therapy.

[progressiveBadger]

4. Tuskegee of the 2000s

How far we have come since the 70s.

[Smoochie]

5. Not a surprise

... they're in business to sell drugs, as many as possible, and if they happen to kill the recipients along the way, they can blame it on the 'disease'. Convenient, and highly profitable.

Check out this BBC report for some New York examples: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/4038375.stm

[goforit]

6. And how much do the bush's have invested in immoral pharmeceuticals?