Orrin Hatch: “Let me be clear: This economic circumstance is a sad fact of life in many developing nations but it is a fact of life…”

“Let me be clear: This economic circumstance is a sad fact of life in many developing nations but it is a fact of life nevertheless. A key question is how best to bring new treatments and new hope to these underprivileged peoples around the world. As Dr. Sullivan goes on to explain what happened in the construction of these trials you can see that the U.S. standard of care--the so-called long course AZT treatment could not serve as the proper baseline: Given the general recognition that this therapy could not be widely carried out in developing nations, the WHO in 1994 convened top scientists and health professionals from around the world to explore a shorter, less costly, and less complicated drug regimen that could be used in developing countries. This meeting concluded that the best way to determine efficacy and safety could be to conduct research studies that compare a shorter drug regimen with a placebo--that is, no medicine at all. Let me just go on to tell you what Dr. Sullivan--the Bush Administration's HHS Secretary who is currently President of the Morehouse School of Medicine--thinks about the comparison of this study to the Tuskegee study: As one who feels strongly about what happened in Tuskegee, let me say that it is utterly inappropriate to compare these trials with Tuskegee where established treatment was withheld so that the course of the disease could be observed while these men died.”