Recruiting patients into clinical trials to test new drugs is rarely straightforward. Even without fiascos like the trial of TGN1412 in London earlier this year, in which six healthy volunteers suffered multiple organ failure, four out of five clinical trials in the west have been failing to enrol sufficient numbers of test subjects. For drug companies, each day a potential blockbuster remains locked up in R&D can represent $1 million in lost sales.
One response to this crisis has been to export the last phases of clinical trials to developing countries, where sick and desperate people abound. Seventy-five per cent…
