Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post May 17, 1997
Aphaluck Bhatiasevi
Speaking in Bangkok, the director of New York's Aaron Diamond Aids Research Centre said there were US scientists viewing Thailand as a place in which to conduct medical trials, particularly of vaccines.
He said: "For me as part of the Asian minority in the US, I feel it's important for the Thai people to be aware of the possibility of exploitation. If a product is rejected elsewhere, why should you take it?"
The doctor said Thailand was attractive to foreign researchers because of its high rate of infection, even though this had been declining recently; the prominence of HIV sub-type E, and a well developed medical infrastructure.
"I feel very strongly about it," said Dr Ho when asked what he thought about certain foreign researchers exploiting weaker laws and regulations to conduct controversial trials in developing countries.
"It's wrong for some US, European and other researchers to look at this only as an opportunity to develop a product," he said.
Dr Ho is known for his research into what the HIV virus does after infecting a host, and for his experiments on aggressively combatting, with a combination of drugs, the infection in the early stages.
He said Thailand should carefully consider approving trials of a vaccine made synthetically from the outer cover of the Aids virus, known as gp120, because trials on hundreds of US volunteers had shown a very low impact. The US National Institute of Health has rejected approval for third phase trials of these vaccines.
"Companies that have worked on this would obviously like to continue... Thailand is one of the places," he said.
Four institutes, working in pairs, are currently conducting trials with synthetic gp120: the Armed Forces Institute of Medical Sciences and Chiang Mai University; and Mahidol University's Faculty of Tropical Medicine and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
Dr Damrong Boonyuen, director-general of the Communicable Diseases Control Department, said the ministry was compiling information about the vaccine.
Dr Ho urged researchers to study the use of alternative therapies because they were being increasingly used by patients, particularly those who could not afford anti-retroviral drugs.
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