http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/21/AR2006052100960.htmlAIDS Vaccine Testing Goes Overseas
U.S. Funds $120 Million Trial Despite Misgivings of Some Researchers
Inside a ramshackle Buddhist temple here on the country's southeastern coast, curious villagers gathered last fall as part of the United States' biggest gamble yet on stopping the AIDS pandemic.
The informational meeting was almost like a game show as attractive young hosts revved up the crowd, working up to the big question, boomed out over loudspeakers: Would the audience be willing to volunteer to test an experimental HIV vaccine?
-snip-
For the past three years, such gatherings have been held all over Thailand, exhorting young adults to take part in the largest, most expensive, most resource-intensive AIDS vaccine trial ever. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, it ultimately will involve 16,000 people and last 3 1/2 years.
But as the trial moves forward, at a cost of more than $120 million, some researchers are raising questions about its validity. They disparage its science, question its ethics and doubt its efficacy.
One of the chief dissenters is Robert C. Gallo, who helped discover the human immunodeficiency virus. He scoffs at the notion that the trial will be successful. "I thought we'd learn more if we had extract of maple leaf in the vaccine," he said derisively.
NIH scientists defend the study, arguing that even if the vaccine doesn't work, the trial may reveal new things about HIV. "With 5 million new infections each year, the luxury of time is absent," four researchers wrote in the journal Science.
-snip-
------------------------------------------
the pharma barons don't want a vaccine against aids. they make more money treating the symptoms.
don't you just love how they use the poor of other countries.
whose pocket will the 120 mil find it's way to?