Petrelis Files

HIV's Dr. Ho Makes Correction to Medical Journal

Six months in the world of AIDS can seem like such a long time and for many of us an AIDS transparency issue from the winter of 2005 may be ancient history, but I want to call your attention to a correction in a medical journal about famed researcher Dr. David Ho.

The August 30 issue of PLoS Medicine printed the following:

"Correction: A Shot in the Arm for AIDS Vaccine Research

"Citation: Ho DD (2005) Correction: A Shot in the Arm for AIDS Vaccine Research. PLoS Med 2(8): e299

"David D. Ho states that he should have declared as a competing interest that two members of his research team and Ho himself are co-inventors on two candidate vaccines that are in clinical development. For this effort, they also receive funding from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative."

You may remember that I sent a letter to the editor of PLoS Medicine in early March requesting full disclosure of Ho's many competing interests, some of which he now acknowledges in the correction.

My letter said, in part: "The February 2005 issue of your medical journal ran an article by Dr. David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, A Shot in the Arm for AIDS Vaccine Research.

"Dr. Ho, in his competing interests statement, claimed he had no competing interests, which is simply not the truth on his part.

"I have sent Dr. Ho the attached letter about his many ties to competing interests, including his relationship with
ViroLogic, where he sits on the firm's scientific advisory board and has stock options in the company, and to GlaxoSmithKline, where he advises the drug giant on awarding annual grants in AIDS drug research."

Even though Ho doesn't reveal all of his competing interests in the PLoS Medicine correction, just having him do so at this time is a giant step forward for AIDS transparency, and we need much more of it.

For a full list of Ho's many competing interests, go to this previous post.