Testy Trials - of the Clinical Type

Outsourcing of clinical trials is not new- the ethics of it still merit serious discussion. The drugs that are developed using patients in China and in India are often not affordable to the masses in those countries. From one viewpoint, this can be seen as exploitation of the poor.

Deadly Medicine: FDA Fails to Regulate Rapidly Growing Industry of Overseas Drug Testing: "I think what surprised us the most about this whole story is that—there have always been some foreign clinical trials. That, on its face, is not new. What astonished us was the speed with which this has happened. The statistics that Juan quoted there at the beginning come from an inspector general’s report just released this last year. But the speed of this has actually accelerated very much in the last five to 10 years. It’s not just western Europe; it’s parts of the former Soviet Republic, it’s places in Africa, developing nations in Asia. But the two countries that are going to be at the heart of this more and more in the future are going to be China and India, which have both made this a priority. The Indians have revamped their laws to encourage the development of the clinical trial industry over there. China has made such a priority on teaching English that they’re going to be a big factor in this. You now have more people speaking English in China than in India, which I think was one of the things that surprised us about this whole story."