Investment in modern clinical trials is considered to be an integral part of contemporary medical operations and innovational approaches. Financial incentives provided by commercial sponsors are usually aimed at facilitation of early trial initiation. The enrolment of patients into clinical trials is widely spread in modern medicine; nevertheless this method of medical testing can bring negative effects from scientific and ethical point of view.
Nowadays drug companies try to develop effective techniques for the purpose of clinical trials fulfillment. According to the data provided by Albert Einstein College of Medicine the doctors are paid for the patients being enrolled into the clinical trials; sufficient patients participating in such trials “bring” more money to the physicians. From scientific point of view this mechanism of clinical trials can lead to serious consequences affecting and threatening to human health. In previous centuries such testing covered the participation of animals and plants in order to avoid harmful influence of hazardous particles on people’s health.
With the development of commercial practice, great interest of physicians and sponsors awoke in the promotion clinical trials with human enrolment. It should be stressed that earlier trial initiation does not guarantee the effectiveness of medical drugs and even can lead to negative effects. (Foy, 1999)
According to Macklin, the promotion of financial incentives cannot be ethically evaluated because it results in exclusion criteria; “…if a patient’s blood pressure is too high on the first try, you calm him down, take it again, and he is in…” (Larkin, 1999) This practice is aimed at the development of new effective approaches and drugs though financial aspect is predominant one. Ethical principles cannot become the background of modern medical testing.
It is necessary to underline the fact that a lot of pharmaceutical companies use the method of clinical trial in order to provide new drug for the patients. In such cases financial incentives and commercial basis overweigh clinical priority of the practice. (Mant, 1997) Further one, one should underline the fact that all the patients enrolled in the experiments are usually kept in the dark. Ethical principles presuppose complete awareness of the patients as to the testing and its effects they are to experience.
There are a number of drawbacks in earlier initiation and financial incentives. From scientific point of view such practice can result in the formation of various chronic illnesses suffering by dyspeptic patents. According to bioethicist Baruch Brody, “There are no data out there to suggest that gullible patients are being recruited by money-hungry physicians”. (Larkin, 1999) Commercial interest of physicians and sponsors in clinical trials with the enrollment of people will never lead to effectiveness of medical innovations. Thus, the sphere of medicine gradually turns into financial field of beneficial deals.
The analysis of ethical and scientific side of clinical trials with people’s enrolment practiced in modern medicine allowed to evaluate the level of threats and ineffectiveness faced by the patients. There is a tendency to believe that testing on people will help to see new drugs in practice before its usage and promotion in medicine; though modern approaches of clinical trials are more focused on the financial side and financial benefits ignoring the significance of possible threats to the recruiting patients’ health. Very often patients are perceived as victims of cruel medical experiments conducted through commercial interests.
References
Foy, Robbie and Parry, Jayne. 1999. Clinical Trials in Primary Care. Web.
Larkin, Marilynn. 1999. Clinical Trials: What Price Progress? The Lancet, Vol. 354.
Medical Research Council. 1997. MRC topic review; primary health care research review. London: MRC.
Mant, D. 1997. R&D in primary care: national working group report. Bristol: NHS Executive.