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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: 1) by khallow on Friday November 17 2017, @07:44AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 17 2017, @07:44AM (#598100) Journal

    It's pretty bogus to portray the dumping of radioactive waste in the drinking water as an ethical concern.

    If only sarcasm were a reliable test for fake problems. We have at least two examples of the above. People spazzing over trace leaks of tritium and of course, the drama over leaking of the Fukushima site into the ocean.

    That cost of human research is because of ethics and humanity to treat other human beings as actual people.

    Or at least, theater resembling such concern.

    Yes, people die from diseases we don't have approved cures for. It has always happened. For all of human history. And it's sad. The work to develop a safe cure or treatment is for the end result of ending that suffering. People who have the condition for the drug being tested are the very potential candidates to participate in a scientific study. That does not relieve the obligation to make the test as safe as possible.

    The difference is that we can do something about it now.