U.S. accused of AIDS drug cover-up
Sat Dec 18, 2004 02:16 PM ET
By Rebecca Harrison
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling party has accused top U.S. officials of treating Africans like guinea pigs amid questions over testing of a key HIV/AIDS drug before a U.S.-backed roll-out of the treatment across the continent.
The African National Congress (ANC) said on its Web site U.S. health officials had "conspired" with German drug firm Boehringer Ingelheim to hide adverse effects of nevirapine when used to try to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission.
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"(U.S. officials) entered into a conspiracy with a pharmaceutical company to tell lies to promote the sales of nevirapine in Africa, with absolutely no consideration of the health impact of those lies on the lives of millions of Africans," the ANC said in its weekly newsletter.
Quoting reports by the news agency Associated Press, which broke the story, the ANC said top officials at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had arranged to pull a U.S. application for the drug once concerns were raised.
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http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=640658