Biomedical Research in Developing Countries - UNICRI

actively engage at all stages of the trials, to ensure that scientific validity goes along
with respect of the human rights, health and well-being of the participants.
Currently, with more than 30 AIDS vaccines that have failed to reach even phase 1
and just two currently being on pre-human phase trial, a PrEP pill would not
certainly solve the AIDS pandemic and its estimated toll of 5 million new infections
per year. However, if delivered alongside counseling, safe sex education, condoms
and clean needles, a preventive agent would be a powerful tool for doctors around
the world to fight the virus spreading, especially in those countries that are poorly
resourced but most affected. That is why responsible media reporting, responsible
conduct by investigators and sponsors to ensure the safeguard of ethical standards
and actions by activists, based on informed opinion and communication are necessary
to prevent premature cessation of a promising drug.
Unfortunately, other examples dramatically illustrate what can happen when
biomedical research is conducted under unethical standards that take advantage of
poor governance, lax legislation and a very precarious health care system. 44
Generally, this type of research is based on the application of double standards of
care, as well as on a failure to consider aspects of distributive justice, especially in
regards to post trial benefits, such as access to medicines or compensation for
injuries deriving from the trial 45 .
44 Schipper I., Weyzig F., Briefing paper on ethics in clinical trials, #1: Examples of unethical trials, Stichting
Onderzoek Multinationale Ondernemingen (SOMO) in collaboration with WEMOS, 2006
45 See as recent examples, the Pfizer trial of the drug Trovan in Nigeria or the Crixivan trial by Merck in
Guatemala.
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