The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is among the first medical centers in the country taking part in a novel clinical trial investigating if a subject's own stem cells can treat a form of severe coronary artery disease.

For years, pharmaceutical companies have sought to restrict public access to drug safety data collected in clinical trials on the basis that it is proprietary information, arguing that competitors could use that information in the development of their own products. However, a number of recent cases of drugs found to have dangerous side effects after coming to market, such as the anti-inflammatory drug rofecoxib (Vioxx), have raised concerns about safety data being treated as confidential.

A large-scale clinical trial of a candidate HIV vaccine-which previously showed promise in smaller studies in the United States and elsewhere-has now opened in South Africa. The study plans to enroll up to 3,000 HIV-negative men and women, making it the largest African HIV vaccine trial to date.

Women have conflicting attitudes about participating in clinical trials because of uncertainties about trusting the experimenters, fear of the trial itself, and hope that the research will result in medical progress, according to a new study at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.