A scientist wrote to a medical journal asking if it was interested in receiving an editorial from him. The editorial would criticise current HIV vaccine research. The scientist is the senior partner of a technology company, and he printed his company’s website in his communication to the journal. The home page of the website advertises a patented toxin, and the site claims that this toxin can “destroy free HIV virus” and that it “eliminates the need” for conventional anti-retroviral drug treatment. No evidence is cited for its clinical effectiveness. The journal naturally declined to publish his editorial, but does COPE think that this case has broader implications?
Inform the Medicines Control Agency, as it is illegal to make therapeutic claims like this.
The author, who is overseas, cannot be traced.