Overseas+Testing+-+Present


 * Health & Safety (Or lack of...) **
 * In India, the deaths of those participating in clinical studies of Western pharmaceutical companies is high, with “ more than 1,500 people [that] have died in clinical trials since 2008” (Sandler).
 * Despite many dangers,many ... "desperately poor recruits are so eager to enroll that they disregard potential risks" (Sandler).
 * “There are many instances where there are swellings in the limbs, loss of eyesight. Several deaths have occurred … It becomes a question of human rights -- a big one at that" //(//Parmer qtd. in "People Keep Falling Sick").
 * Each trial has its possible side effects that are detrimental to the subjects health, yet the monetary incentives for the trials lead to "study voluntee rs enrolling in more than one study at a time" (Sandler).


 * Reasons for Testing Overseas **

"Most clinical trials are conducted overseas—on sick Russians, homeless Poles, and slum-dwelling Chinese,” where programs such as the F.D.A. cannot regulate the testing methods used (Barlett and Steele).


 * **Larger Pool** - Developing countries have a larger number of “ people who are more likely to want to be in a trial” (Caplan qtd. in Miller).
 * **Cost** – Testing outside the states does not require costs of media and talking to doctors. Also, “i n a nation where the average worker makes 50 cents a day, pharmaceutical corporations can offer $400 to participants in drug trials” as compared to thousands of dollars that would be required to compensate Americans.
 * **Less Red Tape** – “the local people who regulate the research aren't as tough as the Americans” who would regulate research because these countries want the pharmaceutical companies to bring in money to the citizens

Testing in countries such as Romania, Tunisia, and Estonia is being conducted “to declare the drugs safe and effective for Americans” (Barlett and Steele).



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Amanda Lueck

[]: This website displays recent and previous drug trails overseas. Each individual has the ability to search an disease and country to find local trials so that they can volunteer.


 * "Throw a dart at a world map and you are unlikely to hit a spot that has escaped the attention of those who scout out locations for the pharmaceutical industry" (Deadly Medicine).**

Current number of clinical trials: Malawi (61), the Russian Federation (1,513), Romania (876), Thailand (786), Ukraine (589), Kazakhstan (15), Peru (494), Iran (292), Turkey (716), Bangladesh (76), and Uganda (132).

Celebrex Clinical Trials: They ranged from 1 each in Estonia, Croatia, and Lithuania to 6 each in Costa Rica, Colombia, and Russia, to 8 in Mexico, 9 in China, and 10 in Brazil. But even these numbers understate the extent of the foreign trials. For example, the database lists five Celebrex trials in Ukraine, but just “one” of those trials involved studies in 11 different Ukrainian cities. In 2008 the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline tested a new vaccine, Synflorix, on infants in Argentina. 14 of those infants died. Their parents, some illiterate, had their children signed up without understanding that they were taking part in an experiment. The doctors persuaded the naive parents to sign up and received a whopping $350 per child. In New Delhi, 49 babies died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences while taking part in clinical trials over a 30-month period. In New Dheli blood pressure drugs and other drugs (that should not be used on anyone under the age of 18) 4,142 children were tested. 49 babies and an unknown number of children died. But the head of the pediatrics department at the All India Institute maintained that “none of the deaths was due to the medication or interventions used in clinical trials.”

Kai Des Etages