The Body Hunters: Drug Companies Find New Guinea Pigs
Filed under: Osteoporosis
I was just flipping through the latest issue of Utne magazine and came across an article about drug companies going overseas to find cheap human guinea pigs. One example given is Pfizer and their trial of an osteoporosis drug called Oporia (lasofoxifene). I found it reprinted online so I can quote:
In Latin America, says Pfizer's Julio Camps, "you can have fast recruitment . . . at a very reasonable cost." ... Pfizer's trial of the osteoporosis drug lasofoxifene, for example, required experimental subjects to be "treatment-naive," that is, never treated for the condition. Argentina was "the number one recruiting site," Camps said, calling the country's ability to provide willing guinea pigs "amazing."
The author of the article, Sonia Shah, has written a book about this issue called The Body Hunters: Testing New Drugs on the World's Poorest Patients that will be released this month.
The Body Hunters: Testing New Drugs on the World's Poorest Patients
Posted by Tracy on July 10, 2006 4:26 PM
DIGG | del.icio.us | furl
Eli Lilly is a big drug company that puts profits over patients.
Daniel Haszard Bangor Maine zyprexa caused my diabetes http://www.zyprexa-victims.com
I guess I should be shocked, but I'm not. And that's sad.