26-01-2012, 06:48 PM
This is a drug whose effectiveness is essentially unknowable.
Animal testing cannot prove such a drug's efficacy in a human population.
So, even if this national security-connected firm is planning on finding some secret human guinea pigs - eg in the usual Yankee colonies for human testing such as Haiti, Panama and Costa Rica - the results of such testing could never be published in clinical journals.
Thus this drug could never be declared fit and safe for human use in advance of a smallpox pandemic.
Therefore, I assume this is a black budget for classified research - perhaps smallpox, perhaps some unknown biological or germ warfare project.
Given the size of the contract, at $433 million, and the skillset and national security profile of the contractor, this is a matter of genuine concern.
Quote:Siga's drug, an antiviral pill called ST-246, would be used to treat people who were diagnosed with smallpox too late for the vaccine to help. Yet the new drug cannot be tested for effectiveness in people because of ethical constraints and no one knows whether animal testing could prove it would work in humans.
Animal testing cannot prove such a drug's efficacy in a human population.
So, even if this national security-connected firm is planning on finding some secret human guinea pigs - eg in the usual Yankee colonies for human testing such as Haiti, Panama and Costa Rica - the results of such testing could never be published in clinical journals.
Thus this drug could never be declared fit and safe for human use in advance of a smallpox pandemic.
Therefore, I assume this is a black budget for classified research - perhaps smallpox, perhaps some unknown biological or germ warfare project.
Given the size of the contract, at $433 million, and the skillset and national security profile of the contractor, this is a matter of genuine concern.
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war