Drug trial victim's cancer claim

[Guest guest]

Northwick Park Hospital in London was the scene of the drug trials

A man who fell ill following drug trials at Northwick Park Hospital

says he now has the early signs of cancer.

Six men were left seriously ill after volunteering to take part in

the trials in north-west London earlier this year.

 

David Oakley told the Mail on Sunday that he is now seeking

compensation from Parexel, which arranged for the drug trials to take

place.

 

There is no evidence to show Mr Oakley's cancer was caused by the

experimental treatments.

 

Mr Oakley said he was first made aware of a potential problem about

two months ago when blood tests revealed " cells that shouldn't be

there " , which he says indicate he has early stages of the disease.

 

He said: " It's an early sign of cancer. The best I could actually get

was that if we catch it early enough it is treatable.

 

" At the moment I haven't felt any physical effects but the paperwork,

the blood work, that's all there and apparently there are early

indications [of cancer].

 

Someone has to be accountable and Parexel should be accountable

 

David Oakley

 

" I'm going to try and be as positive as I can and if mind over matter

has anything to do with it, well, I'll give it a good try.

 

" I can't dwell on it because if I dwell on it I'm just going to go

down in a heap. "

 

Mr Oakley said he was particularly concerned about potential damage

to his auto-immune system that could lead to illnesses such as

rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

 

" If anything they worry me more because I don't want to be left in a

situation where I'm stuck in intense pain and can't do anything about

it.

 

" That's probably my worst fear. "

 

He said that " someone has to be accountable and Parexel should be

accountable. They made a mistake.

 

Seeking compensation

 

" Really I'm just trying to do my bit and pointing out their mistake.

If someone doesn't point it out it could happen again and there's no

way I would like to see someone else go through what we're going

through right now. "

 

Mr Oakley is now seeking compensation and said he hoped the company

would " do the right thing " in respect to his claim.

 

BBC News attempted to contact Parexel on Saturday evening but was

unsuccessful.

 

Parexel is a clinical research organisation which carried out the

trial on behalf of TeGenero, a German pharmaceutical company.

 

Completely unexpected

 

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) has

previously said Parexel failed to follow proper procedures.

 

It found there was no contract in place between TeGenero and Parexel

at the beginning of the trial.

 

TeGenero has maintained that the men's reactions were " completely

unexpected " and did not reflect the results obtained from the earlier

laboratory studies.

 

Parexel has previously said all guidelines were followed during the

drug trials.