Biomedical Research in Developing Countries - UNICRI

makers and the community in developing countries for sharing responsibilities in
determining research priorities, in assessing the value of research, in the planning,
conducting and overseeing of research. Equal partnership with local collaborators
helps to ensure that research is acceptable and relevant to the host country and helps
build local capacity for research and health care delivery. In addition, it would help
integrating research into health care system, as study results would influence local
health care policy.
In the same article, issues such as compensation for research-related injuries,
medical care for conditions unrelated to that of the research study, what medical
care should be provided once research is over, as well as communication of the
results of research are considered within the benchmarks for action.
The collaborative partnership principle has been criticized as showing its limitations
in the fact that collaboration at this level is very difficult to achieve in most of the
developing country settings. This principle may sound unrealistic, unless we were
to consider all research conducted without local collaboration as unethical, or unless
we considered appropriate to postpone any research until the necessary conditions
for partnership can be created 6 .
THE GUIDANCE
In the field of biomedicine, research ethics guidelines and standard setting
regulations promulgated by the United Nations, by multilateral organizations and
national institutions have their roots in the philosophical and moral background of
international human rights law and treaties such as the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (1966), which reconfirm the value of independence from any scientific
exploitation of the human being by stating that “no one shall be subjected without
his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation”.
World War II inspired the Nuremberg Code (1947), a 10-point statement that was
included in the verdict of the Military Tribunal of Nuremberg in the trial against the
scientists accused of crimes. While it can be considered the first structured attempt
to define the legitimate parameters of medical research, it is limited in scope by its
contingency to condemn the atrocities perpetrated by the III Reich scientists and to
prevent future human abuse during conflicts. It stresses that no research should be
done on human subjects without clear voluntary consent and the need for
favourable risk-benefit ratio; however, basic concepts such as fair subject selection
or the importance of independent review are absent.
6 Kuritzkes D.R., Ethical Conduct of Research in Resource-Limited Settings, J. Infectious Diseases, 2004; 189:794-5
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