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Or maybe just that it hasn't completed clinical trials.

I don't know the specifics of that occasion, but: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/info/whatis#whati s Informed consent is an essential part of the drug testing process, and I did not see anything in the above article to suggest that it was not used. Unfortnately, human trials often come with side effects, both expected and unexpected, and it is just part of the process (heartless though that may be). For a drug to even make it to the point of clinical trials in humans it must show enough a high enough risk to reward ratio in animal and analytical models. A major problem with HIV is that the only animal models that are close are primates, and the strain of "HIV" they carry is not similar enough to what is in humans for scientists to be able to accurately predict a drugs action in human HIV. Still, toxilogical data would have been gathered from animal models in your case, and it was decided by the powers that be that the side effects of those drugs did not warrent an end to this (these?) drug's trial. Only about 1/10,000 potential drugs actually makes it to market, not many "bad" drugs will ever be released to the public. They always have a benefit that is percieved as being greater than the detriment.

This whole story is crazy - there is a website which you can use to find any ongoing study in the US. If you want experimental medicine, look it up and find the nearest place with a participating doc.

Every person already has access to National Library of Medicine's PubMed system that enables them to identify all research publications. And everyone already has access to the National Library of Medicine's ClinicalTrials.gov database. Given the hodgepodge of advice and crappola appearing all over the Web encouraging people to eat untested substances, drink urine, shoot up just about everything in order to cure themselves, please tell me why anyone would be opposed to access to information carefully organized, peer-reviewed research and publications. You must remember that, until the Internet showed up, most medical libraries were closed to the public, and often even to nurses, and all information of any consequence had to come via a doctor. Their role as the guardians of knowledge is eroding as people are encouraged to assume a more active role in their own health decision making. If you have a problem with this, well, you can still just go to your doctor. But some of us might want a few alternatives.

There is already a cancer drug based on the inhibition of proteasomes. The drug is Velcade (bortezomid.) The US Gov. has a site you can use to search for clinical trials. The following page lists the trials currently underway using this drug. There are forty trials currently recruiting patients. This drug however blocks all proteasome activity. Future drugs may be able to control the activity by modfying ubiqutination regulation.

The Eponymous Mallard -- "If it quacks like a duck..."

I hope that the trauma unit at my local hospital gets one of these cold blankets to put me into hypothermia to slow down the effects of brain damage after I get so drunk I fall over and hit my head real bad.

ask your doctor to sign up for clinical trials on hypothermia as a treatment for brain injury patients by sending your doctor here