Unit 6 / Reading 1

Hi Gina - I've got two minutes to forward this mail I just got from Max. I finished in Manchester earlier than expected, so I'll be able to be with you in Edinburgh - if I hurry!

Tom,

I've just been through our own archives here at The Limit to see if we've got anything interesting on Foley or Gruninger or Biomed. Foley crops up regularly of course, but there's nothing that we don't know already. I found a little piece about AIDS in Africa which is somewhat intriguing. It dates from five years ago, and again, there's nothing conclusive, but read it and let me know what you think.

In the western industrialised world we have learnt to live with AIDS. In Africa they learn to die with it. They learn a certain form of resignation. In fact they've known for a long time that the real disease is poverty. The rich world can buy expensive drugs that keep people healthy, happy and at work. But when you grow up in poverty you know you're at the mercy of any number of illnesses that elsewhere can be cured. AIDS is a terrible disease in itself, but it's also the most visible and dramatic symptom of that other disease, poverty. Last year Biomed, one of Britain's leading pharmaceutical companies, announced that it was going to supply low price drugs to certain areas in Africa, in an effort to stem the spread of AIDS. The focus of their efforts was Kenya, where they are monitoring the drugs' effects at the Jomo Kenyatta Hospital (also know as the Caledonian Clinic) in Nairobi. This widely applauded initiative no doubt enhanced the Biomed image worldwide , but a year later it's very difficult to see what else has improved. More people are now getting access to drugs that they could not get before because they simply couldn't afford them. But Biomed were careful not to divulge what sort of drugs they were offering. Making drugs available is one thing; making effective drugs available is another. And the initiative that was launched in a blaze of publicity last year now appears to be shrouded in mystery. No progress reports, no statistics, nothing.

The man in charge of the operation was none other than Jason Freedman, a pioneer in genetic science, renowned for helping to create the world's first genetically engineered pet, the rabbingo. I tracked him down in Nairobi last week and asked him what the current situation was. "We are making progress," he insisted. "but AIDS is a tough disease. It won't be cured overnight."

But what sort of drugs were they? Experimental? And was it true that the African population was being used as a testing ground? "There's an element of risk in all drugs," he admitted. "Sometimes side effects don't appear until years later. But here we're dealing with a disease that won't give us years to come up with something that we're sure contains no risk. We need something right away. So the risk is calculated. Only fully informed volunteers have been given the treatment, and they're being monitored closely."

In the past six months, in the Kenyatta Hospital, an alarming number of babies have been born deformed. Was that part of the calculated risk? Freedman looked uncomfortable. Clearly I was asking awkward questions. But he is used to criticism, and is able to find an answer to everything. "Pregnant women who pass on the disease to their babies are one of the major problems here," he said. "The risk is greater with that population of course, since an unborn baby is so vulnerable. But that doesn't mean that we simply ignore the problem. Perhaps that particular batch of drugs was defective. We've not had deformities occurring elsewhere. It's a regrettable incident, but we all learn from our mistakes."

Regrettable. All that suffering reduced to a single word. Soon those mothers and babies will be forgotten, and Biomed will either announce success or quietly withdraw from Africa and say no more about it. Freedman himself is making no promises. His work, he says, is entirely humanitarian and he's not on the Biomed payroll. He's doing it because he believes it's right. But isn't he being a little naïve? At the end of the day, who's going to benefit most? The Africans or Biomed? Only time will tell, perhaps, but I know where I'm placing my bets already.