Pharma's Shameful Secret --Tests on unwitting human subjects

September 23, 2006

Big Pharma's Shameful Secret

" Every year, drug companies spend $14 billion to test experimental substances on

humans. Across the U.S., the centers that do the testing--and the regulators who

watch them--allow scores of human test subjects to be injured or killed. " A six

part Special Report by Bloomberg News, Big Pharma's Shameful Secret, is a

massive documented indictment of the pharmaceutical industry and its corrupt

practices which would not be possible without the complicity of the stakeholders

in government and academia -- both having become dependents of Big Pharma.

report, following a year long investigation, documents this industry's

widespread corrupt practices involving all the major pharmaceutical companies

and commercial CROs (contract research organizations) and most importantly, the

report documents FDA's abdication of its public responsibility.

The report documents how those who profit from the business of clinical trials

exploit desperate, poor, and disenfranchised people--immigrants, children,

homeless people. None of the stakeholders in this seedy business are untainted:

they all exploit and abuse human beings as guinea pigs.

The Bloomberg Report corroborates our consistent criticism over the years

about increasingly corrupt clinical trial practices, and a dysfunctional system

that protects itself while sacrificing both the the safey of human

subjects--whether they are patients or healthy volunteers--and the integrity of

research findings. This is a $50 billion business enterprise--that has nothing

in common with medicine that was once governed by the " do no harm " principle.

The radical shift occurred when Congress enacted a bad law: the Prescription

Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) in 1992.

Until then, 80% of clinical trials were conducted at academic centers. When

Big Pharma began to contract commercial CROs all semblance of ethical standards

were swept aside. The culture of medical research changed radically as academia

competed for the lucrative drug testing business, its standards changed as well.

Today, 75% of clinical trials are conducted as described in this ground breaking

series.

No one is safe.

Below is the introductory report. The other five reports are posted at:

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