Petrelis Files

March 8, 2005

Ms. Barbara Cohen
Senior Editor
PLoS Medicine
San Francisco, CA

Dear Ms. Cohen:

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.

As you well know, such information is explicitly required for all authors who publish in your journal and your strict policy on what must be declared as a real or perceived conflict of interest is clearly stated. (Source: http://www.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-static&name=interests)

For many people with AIDS, including myself, we need more transparency from Dr. Ho and all AIDS researchers, so we can make informed choices with our doctors about the best course of treatment to fight AIDS and its many opportunistic infections.

In the interests of AIDS transparency, I ask you to immediately issue a correction to the press about Dr. Ho omitting his various competing interests in your February 2005 issue, that the correction quickly appear on your web site attached to his original article and print the correction in your next edition.

A prompt reply is respectfully requested and appreciated.

Sincerely,
Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA