Foundation for Integrative AIDS Research (FIAR) believes that every individual who offers their life and health, potentially placing both in jeopardy, to participate in a clinical trial should be honored and respected. Part of that is assuring that all de-identified data from clinical trials be made fully and transparently available in order to assess the efficacy, adverse events of any intervention. Our work with investigators at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in assessing interventions used to manage antiretroviral side effects includes an NIH grant to undertake meta-analyses of these questions. Knowing that all clinical trials are reported and that the data from them are available is crucial for more comprehensive profiles that ultimately are intended to serve the interests of science and medicine first and foremost. Use of such data as marketing tools is unacceptable and dangerous when these data are distorted to those ends even as they too often denigrate and disregard the bravery and vital participation of patients.
