Demonstrators Demand More AIDS Research : Health: Activists complain that red tape is delaying the work. Government scientists say they are committed to combatting the ailment.

Nearly 1,000 AIDS activists staged a noisy demonstration resulting in dozens of arrests at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., on Monday, where they demanded an acceleration in AIDS-related research and complained that only one effective AIDS drug has been developed since the epidemic began.

About 60 activists were arrested on the NIH grounds and charged with trespassing after blocking police vehicles or trying to enter buildings at the government’s lead biomedical research agency.

Another 21 protesters were arrested after taking over the office of Dr. Daniel Hoth, director of the division of AIDS for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Hoth’s office is located in Rockville, several miles away from NIH. An NIH spokesman said nothing was damaged, and there were no injuries.

Starting at 7 a.m. under drizzling skies, the protesters strung red streamers through the trees outside several NIH buildings to symbolize the “red tape” they charged was hampering the AIDS research effort. They also set up about two dozen cardboard tombstones with such slogans as: “One AIDS death every 12 minutes” and “We will not R.I.P.”

Moving from one building to another among the key institutes involved in AIDS research, the protesters shouted and chanted: “Ten years, $1 billion, one drug, big deal,” and “We want a cure. This is war.” They were met at the entrances to each building by chained doors and a line of U.S. Park Police on horseback.

“There’s a lot of pessimism in the AIDS community right now because there is no new drug on the horizon that gives people hope,” said Mark Harrington, of New York, a member of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), which organized the protest.

William F. Raub, acting director of NIH, issued a statement saying that “the tragedy of AIDS is keenly felt by scientists at the National Institutes of Health, and the frustration of people who are infected with the AIDS virus and their advocates is understandable.” Raub said that NIH “is wholeheartedly committed” to finding “therapies and vaccines that will eventually defeat this disease.”

Further, he said, because of the research conducted at NIH, as well as by scientists outside the agency who are supported by NIH grants, “there is reason for hope.”

The Bush Administration budget for AIDS is $1.6 billion this year and $1.7 billion next year for research, prevention and care, other than Medicaid.

Many of the activists said that their tactics have already resulted in tremendous changes in the ways AIDS drugs are approved and released, in part due to a similar large demonstration in October, 1988, at the Food and Drug Administration. But they insisted that they have to keep the pressure on.

“They’ve responded because they couldn’t not respond,” said Raymond Schmidt, from Cambridge, Mass. “(But) there’s still a lot more to be done.”

The protesters demanded that funding for AIDS research be increased and that the NIH budget be doubled so that AIDS “not be forced to compete with other health care priorities.” Further, they called for the development of new AIDS treatments, and increased research into drugs to combat the dozens of individual opportunistic infections and cancers that plague AIDS patients. They also urged that clinical studies be expanded to include more women, children and minorities.

While current federal AIDS spending represents an all-time high, numerous organizations--including the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, the National Commission on AIDS and the National Organizations Responding to AIDS Coalition--have all said that significantly more money should be spent.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of AIDS research activities for the NIH, issued a statement defending the work of his agency, saying it has “made a dramatic impact on the lives of people who are infected with the AIDS virus.”

He said that except for AZT--the only antiviral AIDS drug licensed thus far--and a few related compounds, “very few promising . . . drugs have yet emerged from preclinical research; thus few are available for testing.”

Fauci promised that “we will continue to investigate any therapy with promise” and said that inaccurate statements made by ACT UP “do nothing to further the cause to which we are thoroughly dedicated--that of conquering AIDS.”