What’s the difference between testing a typical small molecule drug, and testing a novel cell therapy strategy? And where might the latter raise ethical challenges that the former doesn’t? These questions are extensively discussed in my book, and given human drama in a recent story by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel in the Feb 12, 2010 issue of… Continue reading Transplanting Autoimmune Research
Tag: LMICs
The Biotechnology of Neglect
What can the biotechnology industry do for neglected diseases (infectious diseases that, because they primarily afflict low-income countries, are not heavily researched in the public or private sector)? Biotechnology enthusiasts might answer “everything,” ignoring the dearth of research and development incentives for small biotechnology firms, much less the major challenges presented by the manufacture, distribution,… Continue reading The Biotechnology of Neglect
Cancer, Low and Middle-Income Countries, and Translational Research
In the October 20, 2008 issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology, oncologist Zeba Aziz describes morning rounds in a cancer ward in Lahore, Pakistan. The first patient earns $20 a month and requires a combination therapy costing $10K. In the second case, a father can only pay 15% of the treatment needed by his daughter.… Continue reading Cancer, Low and Middle-Income Countries, and Translational Research
NOTES from the Underground
Surgical innovation has always been a problem for medical ethics. Surgeries are unregulated, and partly as a result, few are introduced to clinical practice having been validated in randomized controlled trials. Moreover, attempts at novel surgeries typically fly beneath the radar of ethical review, because they are viewed as innovative clinical practice rather than research.… Continue reading NOTES from the Underground
You are being (ethically) watched!
In the current issue of Bulletin of the World Health Organization, authors Margaret Carrel and Stuart Rennie describe ethical challenges presented by demographic and health surveillance activities performed in low-income countries (“Demographic and Health Surveillance: Longitudinal Ethical Considerations”). What’s the link to translational research and gene transfer? A number of issues identified in this article… Continue reading You are being (ethically) watched!
Seeing Red
In the next issue of the journal Haemophilia, two researchers, Katherine Ponder and Alok Srivistava, take me to task for an article I recently published on the ethics of hemophilia gene transfer trials. My article discusses the little noticed phenomenon of researchers at elite medical centers in the U.S. recruiting trial subjects in Brazil and… Continue reading Seeing Red