PIP: The World Health Organization (WHO) plans to start large scale trials of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccines in developing countries. It has been placed in a difficult position by the decision of the National Institutes of Health to postpone such trials in the US, a poor decision according to Genetech, owner of 1 of the vaccines. WHO will, however, carry out the trials in Brazil and Thailand in 1995. Some will ask if the people of developing countries should be used as guinea pigs; others will point to the urgency of the pandemic in areas of the Third World. Testing is cheaper and fewer ethical questions are asked in developing countries. But the vaccines, once tested, will be too expensive for these same countries to afford. A working vaccine for the US or western Europe provide a profit incentive for companies like Genetech; the same vaccines for developing countries do not. The decision by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID, a component of NIH) to discontinue phase III trials changes the momentum of research on HIV vaccines by private companies. Genetech fears a repeat of its hepatitis B vaccine, which, at $1, is still too expensive for countries such as Uganda or Kenya. Vaccines developed to date have involved strains dominant in North America and Europe. These strains also occur in Latin America, the Caribbean, and some parts of Thailand; however, there have been no clinical trials of strains prevalent to Africa. Vaccines for Africa are unappealing to drug companies in terms of profit.