A Study That Should Not Have Been Done

May 5, 2010

The New England Journal of Medicine in February published the results of a deeply flawed clinical trial in South Africa. The SAPIT (Starting Antiretroviral Therapy at Three Points in Tuberculosis Therapy) trial was designed to determine the most effective way to treat patients infected with HIV and tuberculosis. But it raises a number of disturbing questions about the oft-debated and vexing issue of appropriate standards of care in clinical trials undertaken in developing countries like South Africa. It also raises serious concerns about the quality of ethical review undertaken in those countries, and it highlights some surprising deficiencies in existing U.S. regulations regarding when ethical review should be undertaken by American IRBs. (Bioethics Forum)