Financial Times: "AIDS Drug Pioneers in Talks with Backers"
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Dear colleagues,
This is to alert you that an article entitled �AIDS Drug Pio-
neers in Talks with Backers,� authored by Andrew Jack and pub-
lished August 3 in the Financial Times of London, contains a
number of inaccuracies. The article has been further dissemi-
nated by Business Day of South Africa and allAfrica.com. To pre-
vent further dissemination of potentially misleading informa-
tion, please note Family Health International�s correction. In
particular:
The Financial Times article suggests that the effectiveness of
tenofovir can be implied based on data from the Cameroon study.
On the contrary, FHI has not reviewed any data from this study
by treatment group, and so a conclusion that tenofovir is effec-
tive cannot be made at this time. In fact, the amount of data
collected in Cameroon will never allow such a conclusion. How-
ever, based on the small number of women who became infected
with HIV, any suggestion that participants may have placed them-
selves at increased risk for HIV due to their participation in
the trial (e.g., by taking part in riskier behaviors) appears
unfounded.
By mutual agreement, Family Health International and the Minis-
try of Public Health in Cameroon issued a joint announcement of
the closure of research on oral tenofovir at the Cameroon study
site. The closure merely formalized the study�s suspension for
nearly half a year as questions about how to ensure long-term
treatment for participants infected with HIV during the trial
were debated. This important issue is still being discussed by
international and national agencies.
Closure of the tenofovir study in Nigeria and Cameroon is re-
grettable. However, FHI is committed to meeting internationally
accepted standards of quality for research so that participants
are protected and study findings are scientifically reliable.
Thank you for your help in this matter.
Sincerely,
David Hock
Family Health International
mailto:DHock@fhi.org