Drug Trials—the Dark Side: This World

摘要

An advert posted inside some London buses shrieks, "Drop by today—it could be a beneficial visit!" Placed by the pharmaceutical services company PAREXEL, it seeks volunteers for research—at Northwick Park Hospital. The recent disastrous trial of the monoclonal antibody TGN 1412 at that venue has heightened the public's interest in clinical drug studies. And the long term result may be increased scepticism, such that fewer people in the United Kingdom will be willing to participate in clinical research, no matter how upbeat the recruitment messages.