Report on clinical trials in Egypt prompts legal case

Today the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant published an article about the aftermath of a report that Wemos published last June. The report – which revealed unethical practices in clinical trials in Egypt – was the reason why the pharmaceutical industry provided judicial guidance to a clinical trial participant to file a claim against our partner organization Public Eye in Switzerland. Such new tactics of intimidation are how the pharmaceutical industry aims to undermine critical research.

Last June, Wemos – together with organizations SOMO and Public Eye – published a report about ethical clinical trials in Egypt. Over recent years, our research in this area has led to the following findings:

• People who participate in clinical trials in low- and middle-income countries are vulnerable due to lack of access to health care. This often forces them into participating in clinical trials just to get treatment they would otherwise not receive. But this also means they ignore the risks that come with taking part in a trial, like harmful side effects.
• When a clinical trial participant is physically harmed during a trial, it is extremely difficult to receive financial compensation or health care for the inflicted harm.

Ella Weggen (global health advocate Wemos): ‘The pharmaceutical industry has shown it is not reluctant to silence critical organizations by exploiting poor, dependent clinical trial participants.’

The article appeared on April 4th 2017 in Volkskrant (Dutch)

An earlier article appeared on March 28th 2017 in Follow the Money (Dutch)

Read the entire Egypt report and a feature article about the report in Dirty Profits