# \[e-drug\] American research without a requirement for American IRB review (cont) **URL:** \ **Category:** e-drug\ **Created:** [December 15, 2000, 2:57am UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-american-research-without-a-requirement-for-american-irb-review-cont/9862 "2000-12-15T02:57:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chris\_Green1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c4cdca/32.png) [@Chris\_Green1](https://talk.edrugplus.org/u/Chris_Green1)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 2:57am UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-american-research-without-a-requirement-for-american-irb-review-cont/9862/1 "2000-12-15T02:57:37Z")
E-drug: American research without a requirement for American IRB review (cont) --------------------------------------------- I agree that it is disingenuous to expect developing countries voluntarily to follow Western standards of ethics in regard to clinical trials. And while I accept that it is preferable that such standards exist, I'm not sure that I understand why these must be enforced by a West which continues to ignore (even often support) the corruption which is frequently an underlying cause of this cavalier attitude to ethics in the developing world. It seems to me that there's an awful lot that's being unsaid in these discussions. Yes, one reason that clinical trials are carried out in the developing world is because it's 'easier' to do them there. It's probably also cheaper because you don't have to pay the staff as much. Some will probably say this is unethical, and call for the staff to be paid US salaries. Add all this political correctness, and we'll never see trials carried out in the conditions in which the drugs need to be used. I personally find it far, far more unethical that so much money is being spent developing and marketing 'non-essential' drugs for the West, while new drugs to treat developing country illnesses are being ignored. The system clearly provides little incentive for development of such drugs. Making it almost impossible to test them only adds to the barriers. I'm only an ordinary human being, not an ethicist. But it seems to me better to give one out of two people a possible cure or temporary alleviation for his/her illness, rather than deny it to both. I'm sure I'll be told I'm missing several hundred points here, but then, so are many millions of desperate people in the developing world. Chris ---------------------------------- Chris W. Green (chrisg@rad.net.id) Jakarta, Indonesia Tel: +62-21 846-3029 Fax: +62-21 846-1247 -- Send mail for the `E-Drug' conference to `e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'. Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'. For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.