http://www.interfax.cn/showfeature.asp?aid=11295&slug=health

The Department of Health should release details of all clinical trials, say for the last 10 years, where incidents have occurred which are detrimental to the participants' health, whether or not gagging agreements have been signed. It is the Department of Health's/MHRA's responsibility. We should also know the exact terms insurance companies demand for clinical trials and healthy participants used as "guinea pigs" and how this interacts with the Department of Health regulations.

I think it would depend on what the tests were for. I don't think it is particularly dangerous, they don't just give you any drug they just came up wit this morning, these drugs have been rigorously tested beforehand. How many drug trials take place in the UK every year? and how often does a story like this one arise?

Over 20 years ago i trialed a number of drugs.

One of these drugs was found to have benefits for a condition other than the one it had been designed for, and the trial was to discover how beneficial it would be to this secondary but lesser ailment which i suffered from at the time.

It worked a treat, so well in fact that when the trial ended, i requested the name and manufacturer of this drug, information that you are not usually given when on a trial.

This particular drug came onto the market some time later and was widely prescribed for both conditions.

They did in fact tell me the name and where i could obtain this drug before it came onto the market, and I took this drug for a couple of years, it helped me greatly and there came a time when i no longer needed it.

Now and coincidentally, nearly 25 years later i suffer from the condition that the drug was originally designed to treat, i remembered it and with high hopes of relieving my constant pain i persuaded my GP to prescribed it..... Ironically it is of no help whatsoever.

Incidentally, drug trials are not done willy nilly as some seem to think, not only do they have to conform to a number of governmental regulations, and much more so these days than when i was doing trials, the participants are vetted and monitored very carefully and you also have to have the backing of your own GP.

I'm on a drug recently given the OK in this country but I'm a bit concerned that there's no real mechanism for giving the drug company any proper feedback about side effects and so on.
Once the clinical trials have been completed you are on your own with it.

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You can't start clinical trials in unhealthy people, you need to start in healthy volunteers to establish tolerance levels before progressing into diseased individuals to generate your proof of concept.

On the recent drug trials programme, a Financial wachdog actually said they only test cancer drugs on patients dying of cancer as no fit person would undertake treatment with such aggressive drugs. Does this mean all the donations I and others conribute to cancer charities ends up on drugs used on dying people with little or no progress taking place as it needs healthy people to succumb, in order to evaluate the effects of the drugs?
No trials for me. As for the willing, they should be compensated massively. I understand drug Companys need to recover initial investment and a lot of this goes on trials. But how many Billions do they actually make once a drug is licensed? The licensing system (rightly) prevents copies, thus ensuring in many cases, years of competition free royalties. Perhaps they could share some of this wealth with those who risked a lot for the benefit of the Drug Barons.

No I would not!

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Originally posted by Zyzyxz:

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You can't start clinical trials in unhealthy people, you need to start in healthy volunteers to establish tolerance levels before progressing into diseased individuals to generate your proof of concept.

On the recent drug trials programme, a Financial wachdog actually said they only test cancer drugs on patients dying of cancer as no fit person would undertake treatment with such aggressive drugs. Does this mean all the donations I and others conribute to cancer charities ends up on drugs used on dying people with little or no progress taking place as it needs healthy people to succumb, in order to evaluate the effects of the drugs?
No trials for me. As for the willing, they should be compensated massively. I understand drug Companys need to recover initial investment and a lot of this goes on trials. But how many Billions do they actually make once a drug is licensed? The licensing system (rightly) prevents copies, thus ensuring in many cases, years of competition free royalties. Perhaps they could share some of this wealth with those who risked a lot for the benefit of the Drug Barons.

Or the Pharma's could stop charging people through the noses both here and in the 3rd world for the drugs they need. I'm not saying give it for free, profit's fine, but the profits of some pharma's is ridiculous.

I have and not even for money. I tried the pill and the HRT and I paid for it. The next generation, I hope, will benefit from us.

This might be a bit off topic, but I find it strange that we can give sell our bodies for medical research but everyone always go on about how unethical it would be to sell our organs(kidney)surely this is a bit of a contradiction. I understand that it would be taking advantage off the poor but surely so is medical research.

I would never do anything like this, for any amount of money

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Originally posted by News Ed:
In the light of the drug trials that have left two patients fighting for their lives we want to know whether you would be prepared to take part in clinical drug trials for money...

no

no way i make sure that anything i'm given by the doctor is ok.
When i was 13yrs they were testing out steroids for asthma and i was put on it for a year and it had really bad effects now these pills were posible are only prescribed for a week.
Two other people on the trial had to have a hole cut in their neck and a tube inserted becouse the steriods had stopped the need to spit out flem.
On these pills we lost sensations like feeling full and if you don't constantly eat it will cause pain so we all gained weight.
this is ok for a week becouse you can loose weight after and go to the gym also swimming really helps.