Monday, September 28, 2009

Concern for Outsourced Drug Clinical Trials

This article in the guardian highlights how many companies like Pfizer and other big pharmaceutical companies have paid a lot of money to settle claims after controversial trials in countries like India and China. In these countries, it is by far easier to recruit volunteers, cheaper to conduct and manage trials, and easier to get past ethical issues and rules most times. Outsourcing though brings forth an ethical issue where there are many desperate individuals that will participate in experimental drug clinical trials. In many cases drug clinical trials carry out little relevance to the local population in which it is conducting the trial. Will any regulations be set in the future that will set more rigorous scrutiny of ethical conduct?

0 comments: