Overview

The Professional Guinea Pig documents the emergence of the professional research subject in Phase I clinical trials testing the safety of drugs in development. Until the mid-1970s Phase I trials were conducted on prisoners. After that practice was outlawed, the pharmaceutical industry needed a replacement population and began to aggressively recruit healthy, paid subjects, some of whom came to depend on the income, earning their living by continuously taking part in these trials. Drawing on ethnographic research among self-identified ""professional guinea pigs"" in Philadelphia, Roberto Abadie examines their experiences and views on the conduct of the trials and the risks they assume by participating. Some of the research subjects he met had taken part in more than eighty Phase I trials. While the professional guinea pigs tended to believe that most clinical trials pose only a moderate health risk, Abadie contends that the hazards presented by continuous participation, such as exposure to potentially dangerous drug interactions, are discounted or ignored by research subjects in need of money. The risks to professional guinea pigs are also disregarded by the pharmaceutical industry, which has become dependent on the routine participation of experienced research subjects. Arguing that financial incentives compromise the ethical imperative for informed consent to be freely given by clinical-trials subjects, Abadie confirms the need to reform policies regulating the participation of paid subjects in Phase I clinical trials.

Full Product Details

Author:   Roberto Abadie ,  Roberto Abadie
Publisher:   Duke University Press
Imprint:   Duke University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.70cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 23.60cm
Weight:   0.422kg
ISBN:  

9780822348146

ISBN 10:   0822348144
Pages:   277
Publication Date:   30 July 2010
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

A Note on Method ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction. A Guinea Pig's Wage: Risk, Body Commodification, and the Ethics of Pharmaceutical Research in America 1 1. Guinea-Pigging: The In/Formal Economy of Phase I Clinical Trials in Philadelphia 21 2. Market Recruitment, Identity, and Resistance among Professional Guinea Pigs 45 3. Local Knowledge and Risk Management among Professional Guinea Pigs 65 4. Big Pharma and HIV Clinical Trials: A Case Study 85 5. Strategies of Survival: HIV Clinical Trials and the Fight for Their Lives 97 6. From Prisoners to Professionals: A Brief History of the Clinical-Trial Enterprise 121 7. Ethics and the Exploitation of the Poor in Clinical Trials Research 137 Conclusion. Living in/off the Mild Torture Economy as Trial Subjects 157 Epilogue. Following Up: Robert Helms, Frank Little, Dave Onion, and Spam One Last Time 167 Bibliography 171 Index 181

Reviews

Roberto Abadie has given us a deep, complex and profoundly disturbing investigation into the dark underside of the clinical trials industry. The Professional Guinea Pig is not just ethnography. It is a call to action. oCarl Elliott, author of Better than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream

Author Information

Roberto Abadie is a visiting scholar with the Health Sciences Doctoral Programs at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions