Is it just me or is this completely ridiculous?

[Cadiva]

From the Beeb today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4921672.stm


Now, is it just me or am I getting into a rage over nothing? These people took part in a drugs trial, knowing or suspecting there might be an element of risk in what they were doing and were paid a fee accordingly.
Obviously some of them had a major adverse reaction to said drug and were seriously ill.
Said drugs company has said it is willing to pay compensation and is in discussion with its insurers over said amount and offered £5k as an interim on condition the men don't sue.

Now, on what possible grounds have they actually got to sue?! They took part in a drugs trial freely and of their own volition and were paid accordingly for it. It went wrong, the company doing the testing has said it will see they are compensated for it and yet they still want even more money.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, bloody American claim and counter claim culture and lawyers offering these no win no fee bollox is driving me nuts.

/end rant.

 

[tris-]

simple cos people are greedy.

and usualy go into things without thinking about it

i wonder how many of you here read the FULL contract before signing it, read the full terms and conditions of a service before you sign up.

i doubt many will, because its easier to accept it and hope it will all be fine.

 

[Jeremiah]

From reading some of the earlier stories, it seems that the organisation doing the trial didnt provide enough information to the volenteers before the trial. I dont think the UK drug trials involve volenteers signing disclaimer forms, and so the organisations a required to provide as much information as they can as to the possible side effects. Volenteers are then "compensated" for their time.

Their insurance covers the situations where unexpected side effects occur - and I think organ failure from a supposed "anti-inflammitory" drug counts as unexpected. I guess that if the organisation have told the volenteers that there could be drastic side effects, they would be in the clear - but then again, who would volenteer for a potentially lethal drug trial?

 

[Calaen]

It is a total sham to be honest, they agreed to take part, they were paid to take part. While it is a shame what has happened, it is always a risk thats why you have to choose to sign the forms. You cant pick up any medication nowadays without there possibly being about 3-4 mad side effects that could ooccur during the period of the medication.

 

[Cadiva]

The agency said there were no obvious errors in the trial which left six volunteers with multiple organ failure.

Not 100% sure, but as far as I read it, there was a no-fault agreement form the volunteers signed when they originally signed up.
Might not necessarily include all the extreme outcomes so perhaps you're right.

Still, if you sign up for these things then surely you must be aware/accept that it might go wrong?

 

[tris-]

You cant pick up any medication nowadays without there possibly being about 3-4 mad side effects that could ooccur during the period of the medication.

check out anti malaria tablets. now are those mad side effects.

brain hemorage anyone

 

[haarewin]

bollocks.
they have to sign giving their agreement to take part. they did that, and bad stuff happened. they shoulda took the £5k because they won't get much else aside from the masses they probably made from the papers.
they should be happy that they aren't dead. i would be if i was in that situation.

 

[Jeremiah]

I think part of the compensation agreement is that the victims sign a "no-fault" agreement, to clear the organisation, which they are refusing to do. But I also feel a bit confused as to why, after they took part in a trial, they get compensated knowing they were playing a part in determining the side effects. As usual, theres a loud silence about what contract, if any, they signed...

edit: On the Q&A page, it seems in Britian you arent allowed to offer "Financial Incentives" to take part in drug trials - so I'm guessing they didnt sign any disclaimer forms. It was an open trial, so in stead of being paid, you are "compensated". Seems it would be a win/win situation normally for volenteers. Dunno if you can call a substantial pay out, but organ failure a win/win

 

[Cadiva]

I think part of the compensation agreement is that the victims sign a "no-fault" agreement, to clear the organisation, which they are refusing to do. But I also feel a bit confused as to why, after they took part in a trial, they get compensated knowing they were playing a part in determining the side effects. As usual, theres a loud silence about what contract, if any, they signed...

edit: On the Q&A page, it seems in Britian you arent allowed to offer "Financial Incentives" to take part in drug trials - so I'm guessing they didnt sign any disclaimer forms. It was an open trial, so in stead of being paid, you are "compensated". Seems it would be a win/win situation normally for volenteers. Dunno if you can call a substantial pay out, but organ failure a win/win

That's right, they are compensated for their time, rather than paid to take part, it's a legal way round it though far as I'm concerned. They are still being paid to take part in a trial they know may be dangerous.

However, it says about the no-fault agreement they signed (as in past tense) as well as mentioning the new agreement they are being asked to sign so they won't sue. I think these are two seperate documents.

Do people know things could go wrong?

Anybody who takes part has to be told what risks are involved and what known side effects might be.

They would also be told what compensation would be in place if something unexpected went wrong.

Legal experts said it was important any financial payouts were approved quickly and without dispute between the companies involved so that people were not deterred from taking part in drug trials.

Ben Hayes of the ABPI said people should not take part in trials if they feel they have not been given sufficient information.

But he said trials were taking place for the good of the wider population: "At some point, scientists have to translate the theory into humans."

 

[Jeremiah]

Its the UK's version of the USA people Vs McDonalds!

 

[Calaen]

edit: On the Q&A page, it seems in Britian you arent allowed to offer "Financial Incentives" to take part in drug trials - so I'm guessing they didnt sign any disclaimer forms. It was an open trial, so in stead of being paid, you are "compensated". Seems it would be a win/win situation normally for volenteers. Dunno if you can call a substantial pay out, but organ failure a win/win

There was a guy in the paper a week after this happened saying he has been making 15k a year on doing trials as a second income for over 4 years. He is on a list of people so he gets paged when there is a new drug to be tested. I recall he said the worst thing that has happened is that he went blind in 1 eye for 10 hours.

There needs to be a line drawn if the Human rights and animal rights people had there way how would we test medication?

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

In this specific trial there has been made a number of serious errors on the side of TeGenero. First of all, This was a high-risk drug and never should've been tested on 6 people at a time in high dosage which they did but should've been tested in minute dosages one person at a time so the reactions wouldn't have been so severe.
Second of all, the testpersons were given a big paper with all the medical texts they needed to know (difficult to read ever for medical people) before signing and they had a far too short time to read it before having to sign it (iirc 15 minutes orso). It therefor was nigh-impossible for them to know enough information about this test and had to rely on what the specialists told them.
TeGenero was clearly looking for a shortcut in this test and because of that unnecessary harm occurred.

I agree that you sign up for it and agree with the risks but the risks taken in this trial were unforgivingly high.

 

[Ezteq]

tbh i probably would be a bit pissy if i went for a drug trial thinking "woo easy money" and woke up in hospital with bits of me falling off, even if i knew there could be severe side effects.

just being honest but if i lost body parts i probably would sue.

 

[Outlander]

imagine you gained body parts! w00t! second willy tyvm!

ok so dont know the whole story on this so hard to make a decision on it. from what I do know part of me is like WTF they went in for it etc etc now they want gabillions of cash for it blah blah. other part of me is like well this tet wasnt dont correctly and shouldnt have been done.

 

[Cadiva]

In this specific trial there has been made a number of serious errors on the side of TeGenero. First of all, This was a high-risk drug and never should've been tested on 6 people at a time in high dosage which they did but should've been tested in minute dosages one person at a time so the reactions wouldn't have been so severe.
Second of all, the testpersons were given a big paper with all the medical texts they needed to know (difficult to read ever for medical people) before signing and they had a far too short time to read it before having to sign it (iirc 15 minutes orso). It therefor was nigh-impossible for them to know enough information about this test and had to rely on what the specialists told them.
TeGenero was clearly looking for a shortcut in this test and because of that unnecessary harm occurred.

I agree that you sign up for it and agree with the risks but the risks taken in this trial were unforgivingly high.

Where are you finding this information from because everything that has been reported over here in the UK has been that the trial was run quite correctly and in accordance with every guidance laid out by the Government and the medical trials governing body.

 

[Sparx]

i may be slated here but did anyone actually see a pic or anyting with their heads 5x bigger? i would quite like to see one

 

[Cadiva]

i may be slated here but did anyone actually see a pic or anyting with their heads 5x bigger? i would quite like to see one

I don't think the hospital actually released any

 

[Tilda]

You cant pick up any medication nowadays without there possibly being about 3-4 mad side effects that could ooccur during the period of the medication.

Its not that all these side effects didnt happen before, its just in the modern day society, it makes sense to list every possibility on the box rather than just say "oh 1 person in our trial of 4million had a brain hemmorage, its not worth putting on the box" now they'll put it there in the hope that they wont get sued if its on the box and someone has a hemmorage.

 

[Calaen]

Its not that all these side effects didnt happen before, its just in the modern day society, it makes sense to list every possibility on the box rather than just say "oh 1 person in our trial of 4million had a brain hemmorage, its not worth putting on the box" now they'll put it there in the hope that they wont get sued if its on the box and someone has a hemmorage.

Stop banning yourself and get in training for Gamesday 2!!!!!!!!!

oh and I agree with the above

 

[Lamp]

If you're willing to exchange being injected with a trial drug in exchange for cash, and the administration of the trial drug was undertaken in accordance with all appropriate rules and regulations, then as far as I'm concerned you've got no one to blame except yourself.

I do feel sorry for the victims, but no one forced them to be guinea-pigs.

 

[Lamp]

I don't think the hospital actually released any

There was a picture of the dude in one of the UK tabloids. Might have been the Daily Mail, but can't remember. His face was massively swolen but not 5 times. Not nearly as horrific as John Merrick.

 

[Garok]

That picture was a "photoshop" reconstruction... if you looked at the before after pics they were in exactly the same position and had exactly the same clothes on.

Sly Tabloid tinkers ..



.........

They could always make a bit of cash with Mr Potato head style spin off toys.