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Fears that poor parents might risk the health of their children by putting
them on paid drugs trials were raised at a US Food and Drug Administration
meeting in Washington DC in November. The US has introduced tougher regulations
to ensure that children don’t suffer unforeseen side effects when given
medicines that have previously been tested only on adults. Several drugs
companies have submitted proposals for trials. But needy parents might volunteer
their children for these studies to earn money. “That’s where the potential for
abuse lies,” says Ellen Clayton, a paediatrician and lawyer at Vanderbilt
University in Nashville, Tennessee.