In a startling expose published in the February 9, 2003
Guardian Unlimited comes the revelation that humans are being used as
unwilling test subjects for experimental drugs. The article starts off with
the story of how Italia Sudano was astonished to discover that her trusted
GP who she had been seeing for modest high blood pressure had been using her
as a guinea pig by giving her tablets which had not been medically approved.
Worse still, he was being paid to do so by a pharmaceutical company.
The story reported that Sudano's ordeal began when her MD,
Dr. Adams took a blood test and asked her to return the next week. On one
of her visits, Dr. Adams took a bottle of pills from the top drawer of his
desk and suggested Sudano take one a day. While she thought it strange she
wasn't being given a prescription, she trusted her doctor. Within hours of
swallowing the pill, she could hardly walk because she was so dazed. Her
face had swollen up badly and she was in considerable pain. She stopped
taking the tablets and complained to Hertfordshire Health Authority. This
started an investigation that led to one of the largest cases of medical
research fraud ever uncovered in Britain.
The subsequent investigation revealed that over the previous
five years Adams had earned a considerable amount of money from drug
companies, including the European giants AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and
Bayer. These companies were all paying Adams to test their new drugs on his
patients. Like Sudano, many of his patients had never given their consent
and had no knowledge they were being used as human guinea pigs. Patients
with no symptoms were also given drugs and others who needed proper
medication were given placebos. Adams was receiving a fee for each patient
he used in these unwilling human studies. Eventually, Adams was found guilty
by the General Medical Council (GMC) of serious professional misconduct and
suspended for 12 months.
The drug companies responded
by
blaming the controversy on some bad apples and the odd errant doctor milking
the system. They insist that human trials using GPs are essential for
medical advances and that payment to doctors for the extra work involved is
ethically correct.
An investigation by The Observer also revealed that many
British doctors are risking their patients' health by subjecting them to
medical trials without their knowledge. The investigation by The Observer
suggests the problem of GPs using patients as guinea pigs without their
consent is more widespread. Some 3,000 doctors each year are paid by drug
firms to sign up their patients to tests and on average 15 patients are
needed for each trial. The article states that Medical fraud experts
estimate that one per cent of all drug trials involve fraud, including
failure to get proper consent from patients. This means hundreds of patients
a year are being given unapproved and potentially dangerous drugs without
their knowledge.
David Hinchcliffe, the Labour chair of the House of Commons
Health Select Committee, described the situation as bordering on
'scandalous' and said his committee would look into the issue. He said: "The
relationship between the drug firms and the medical profession is one that
needs to be thoroughly investigated. It is extremely worrying that patients'
trust is being abused by doctors who are more interested in making money
from the pharmaceutical industry."