In the early 1990s, a secret HIV vaccine research project was carried out in the Central African Republic. The project didn’t yield results and was hidden for many years.

Today it sheds light on debates over clinical trials, access to treatment and, more broadly, a specific form of exploitation rarely discussed: biomedical extractivism.

I tell this story in my recently published book, Opération Bangui. Promesses vaccinales en Afrique postcoloniale (The Bangui Operation: Vaccine Promises in Postcolonial Africa). As a sociologist and pharmacist, and a lecturer in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Université de Montréal, my research interests focus on issues related to pharmaceutical policies. Specifically, I examine biomedical research, access to medicines and pharmaceutical practices by focusing on the ambiguities inherent in pharmaceutical policies and global health systems.

Research hidden in Central Africa

HIV spread rapidly in the Central African Republic in the 1980s. It was present in the city’s hospitals and among groups like sex workers and military personnel, who were more exposed to HIV due to their working conditions, isolation and the power dynamics that increased the risk of sexual transmission.

The number of military personnel in the country also increased significantly in the early 1980s; they were being recruited with French support to consolidate the ruling regime.

This provided researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Bangui, the country’s capital, with privileged access to the population for their research.

The institute, founded shortly after the country became independent, redefined post-colonial links by participating in the Central African public health mission alongside the Ministry of Health while remaining scientifically and administratively under the supervision of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, which was structurally supported by French government funding.

In late 1989, a call for tenders aimed at securing significant international funding prompted French researchers to propose establishing a secret research project.

The project sought to identify viruses affecting Central African soldiers, track infection........

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