When several patients with Aids died after an experimental drug trial at Ditan Hospital in Beijing in 2003, human rights activists and local media turned on the pharmaceutical group involved.

Viral Genetics, a Californian biotechnology company, was criticised for failing to explain adequately to participants that they were taking part in a trial rather than receiving a proven medicine. Others question whether it was right that, while some patients were given its test VGV-1 compound, the rest received a placebo instead of antiretroviral therapy, long accepted in the west as the most effective treatment. The company declined to comment.