US to release findings into unethical syphilis research

A US presidential commission will release key findings on a research project that deliberately infected Guatemalan inmates and mental patients with syphilis in the 1940s.

The conclusions have consequences for US diplomacy and will impact ethical discussion on how new drugs are tested on patients, as manufacturers increasingly conduct clinical trials abroad.

The US formally apologised last year for the experiment, meant to test the drug penicillin, after it was uncovered by a college professor.