Placebo Tops HIV Vaccine

(Trenton, New Jersey) Merck and Co. officials have halted testing of a new experimental HIV vaccine due to complete failure. The new vaccine infected more people than a placebo.

Officials at the New Jersey-based company told The Associated Press that 3.2 percent, or 24 of 741 of those who got the vaccine got HIV; 2.8 percent, or 21 of 762 of those on a placebo got it.

Heh.

I suppose it would be tacky for the half-empty crowd at Merck to take a lesson from P.T. Barnum and start marketing sugar pills as "more effective than the latest experimental HIV vaccine."

Tip: slwlion