Could you be a human guinea pig?

Kolodny

After the recent disastrous clinical drugs trials in London, there has been a lot in the news about young people, in particular hard-up students, supplementing their income and paying off loans and debts by taking part in these trials.

A friend of one of the participants in the trial, who was himself due to take part in the second stage, has claimed he will still volunteer for such trials in the future, presumably because the money on offer is too tempting.

The 19-year-old said many students took part in the trials because of the large sums of money involved.
He added: "Being a student, it is very difficult to find flexible employment. Clinical trials allow us to earn large sums of money in a small amount of time."
The fee for the trial in question, he said, was the equivalent of a student loan and would make a real difference to a student's life. They might even enable them to pay off their tuition fees.
However, the events at Northwick Park Hospital have not shaken Mr O'Donnell's faith in clinical trials and he still plans to take part in one in the near future.

I wonder do these companies offer too much money? Would a volunteer neglect to mention any health problems they might have because they’re desperate for cash? Would they fully consider all the risks if they’re under huge financial pressure?

Personally, I couldn’t ever imagine doing it, and recent events have only reinforced that, but I’m curious to know if anyone actually consider it (with or without previous experience of clinical trials).

It’s worth keeping in mind that supposedly nothing on this scale has ever happened before during a human drugs trial (or at least hasn’t been reported) and because of the 'carefully controlled conditions' the chances of this happening again are slim.

So, my question is – if you had a massive debt to clear and were being offered the chance to do it, maybe even with a bit left over for yourself, would you risk damaging your health? Given that you have the choice, would you inform your friends/family?

On a slightly ironic side note: when I googled ‘drug trials london’ to find the original article I read about this, the first link that pops up is Parexel, the company responsible for last weeks trials, and it didn't show up a few days ago…

“Paid time to yourself…”
We are seeking volunteers to participate in clinical trials at our 36 bedded Unit based in Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow - North West London

No thanks…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4812424.stm

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/16/drug_trial_latest/

The_Minister

How do you find out what jobs are available?

Dades

The bottom line is, somewhere along the line a human has to be the first to test a drug. Otherwise they could never enter the market. Every drug you've ever taken - someone has tested that for you.

Like you said - the recent case is exceptional. It's not in the interest of the drug companies to give their testers drugs that may still have severe side effects. Usually that will have been apparant in the animal stage (and the drug kept from human trials).

Of course if western students won't test for large sums, there's whole African communites available. I don't how much of the book "The Constant Gardener" was based in reality - but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the practice of drug testing in Africa is very real.

Dave!

That's a good point The Atheist, and there's alot of room for abuse in that respect (in Africa)!

I personally wouldn't do it... Fair play to anyone who does, though. While they do get paid a handy sum, if there weren't people testing the drugs, we'd never get them and we'd never reap their benefits, so it's very necessary to take the risk.

county

not for diamonds would i do it

Samos

The 'best' people to test new drugs would be those who have the affliction in question and for whom current remedies provide no relief. Indeed they should have priority and should not be refused any potential therapy if any side-efects are suspected (I recall vaguely that a group of patients with a terminal lung disease where denied an experimental treatment because harmful substituents were included, which was foolish as these people were on the path to death anyway, and something beneficial could have come from the test. Can't remeber the exact details though.)

Faith

I'd do it. I wouldn't have even given it a second thought before that tragedy happened, but that was incredibly rare. Generally drugs are pretty safe to test by the time they get to the stage of human testing. You get paid something like £2000 (at least, I think that's what the guys in question got). That would cover my rent and bills for a long time. There's also the 50/50 chance that you'll get the placebo, which means you're getting paid astronomically to take a sugar pill.

aido_2006

Sign me up please!!!

Sleepy

I'd be inclined to do them (depending on the drug being tested), though admittedly there are very few legal things I wouldn't do for a fat wad of cash at the moment...