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University Could Lose Millions From “Unethical” Research Backed by Peter Thiel

posted by janrinok on Thursday November 16 2017, @06:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the its-the-way-that-you-do-it dept.

Fnord666 writes:

Questionable herpes vaccine research backed by tech heavyweight Peter Thiel may have jeopardized $15 million in federal research funding to Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. That's according to documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request by The State Journal Register.

In August, Kaiser Health News reported that Thiel and other conservative investors had contributed $7 million for the live-but-weakened herpes virus vaccine, developed by the late SIU researcher William Halford. The investments came after Halford and his private company, Rational Vaccines, had begun conducting small clinical trials in the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. With the off-shore location, Rational Vaccines' trial skirted federal regulations and standard safety protocols for human trials, including having approval and oversight from an institutional review board (IRB).

Experts were quick to call the unapproved trial "patently unethical," and researchers rejected the data from publication, calling the handling of safety issues "reckless." The government of St. Kitts opened an investigation into the trial and reported that health authorities there had been kept in the dark.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/11/university-could-lose-millions-from-unethical-research-backed-by-peter-thiel/

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  • (Score: 2) by Entropy on Thursday November 16 2017, @11:54PM (2 children)

    by Entropy (4228) on Thursday November 16 2017, @11:54PM (#597985)

    Stem cells, vaccines, whatever. Lets destroy our edge in medical research so that only countries that are not whiney special snowflakes can actually do research that matters. This reminds me of their idiotic no encryption export thing that resulted in all encryption research being done outside the US.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @01:25AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @01:25AM (#598008)

    Do you have to be stupendously evil ALL the time? By your logic we should support slavery. Imagine what an economic powerhouse the US would be!! Asia would have never gotten our outsourced industries and even when when they built their own we'd still win with rock bottom labor costs. Do you feel stupid yet?

    • (Score: 2) by Entropy on Friday November 17 2017, @02:26PM

      by Entropy (4228) on Friday November 17 2017, @02:26PM (#598183)

      Wow, you make slavery sound pretty awesome.