St. Petersburg Times Covers Clinical Trial Outsourcing to India
When we think of Pulitzer prize winning newspaper series, we often think of the New York Times or the Washington Post. But a new special report in the St. Petersburg Times on clinical trials in the developing world should give the big boys a run for their money next year. Staff writer Kris Hundley traveled to India on a journalism fellowship and documented the extraordinary risks taken by some of the world’s poorest patients to test medicines destined for people halfway around the world.
Recalling the harrowing personal experiences, harsh conditions, and institutional practices behind these endeavors, Hundley’s writings are as much of an indictment of the industry as the 2005 Bloomberg Markets article Big Pharma’s Shameful Secret that looked at the domestic side of things. Taken together, they raise a broader question: how much longer can the FDA allow new drugs’ safety and efficacy to be determined in this manner?