Overseas+Testing


 * Overview**

A plethora of American pharmaceutical companies; such as, “Merck and AstraZeneca” (Sundaram) have moved their drug testing out outside of developed countries and into “impoverished countries of Eastern Europe and Latin America [also] Russia, India, South Africa and other Asian and African countries” (Shah). Many of their test subjects are composed of “large concentrations of poor, often illiterate people, who in some cases sign consent forms with a thumbprint, or scratch an ‘X’” (Barlett, Steele).

This ‘outsourcing’ of drug testing brings forth a slew of health, safety, and ethical issues and questions...


 * "With the shifting of more clinical trials to developing, [[image:syringe.jpg width="355" height="236" align="right"]]is the justification for a principal investigator to conduct research in a country other than his or her own?
 * With funds now coming from a greater variety of government and non-government sources, how is that influencing the types of research being done now?
 * With more community advisory boards playing oversight roles in research, how has that changed the nature of research?
 * With more than 1,000 guideline for clinical trials from more than 100 countries, is there a way of harmonizing these multiple standards of research?
 * And what is the obligation of governments and corporations to trial participants about theirs standard of care?" (Donnelly).

Barlett, D. L., and J. B. Steele. //Deadly medicine//. Vanity Fair, 2011. Web. 20 Mar 2012.
 * Sources:**

Shah, S.. //Body hunting: The outsourcing of drug trials//. N.p., 2007. Web. 20 Mar 2012.

Sundaram, Viji. //U.S. Pharmaceutical Companies Testing Drugs on India’s Poor//. New America Media, n.d. Web. 20 Mar 2012.

~J. Griggs