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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=14&u=/ap/20050104/ap_on_go_ot/aids_drug_whistleblower~snip~
WASHINGTON - A U.S.-funded study on an AIDS (news - web sites) drug was so poorly conducted that it potentially put the lives of hundreds of mothers and babies in Uganda at risk, a government whistleblower said Tuesday.
Dr. Jonathan Fishbein said officials at the National Institutes of Health (news - web sites) overlooked problems with the way the study was conducted on the drug, nevirapine, which was being used to protect babies in Africa from HIV (news - web sites) infection during birth.
Fishbein testified before a panel of scientists at the independent Institute of Medicine (news - web sites). NIH, which maintains that the drug is safe in single doses, asked the institute to conduct the review.
In his testimony, Fishbein accused NIH of a double standard, saying the project in Uganda would not have passed muster with federal health officials in the United States.
"The actions of the NIH reveal a callous indifference to the fate of Africans," Fishbein said. "African life, it would appear, is not to be valued as highly as American life."