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Currents in Contemporary Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Timothy Caulfield ,
Trudo Lemmens ,
Douglas Kinsella  and
Michael McDonald
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Extract

An increasing number of community physicians are involved in clinical research.Indeed, 60 of industry-funded research is now spent on community based trials. This surge in community based clinical trials has increased the number of clinical trials applications submitted to the drug regulatory agencies by pharmaceutical sponsors. Many have argued that the commercial interests connected to the conduct and outcome of these trials also increases the potential for conflicts of interest for participating physicians. The context in which these trials take place increases the potential for a host of practices that infringe on ethical, legal and clinical obligations of physicians For example, financial recruitment incentives may lead to violations of the inclusion criteria and the consent process. It may result in inappropriate recruitment of patient participants and a blurring of the ethically significant distinctions between treatment and research. In some cases, it may be hard to distinguish research from the marketing of new products and attempts to influencing prescribing patterns.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , Summer 2004 , pp. 365 - 368
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2004

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Footnotes

Mark A. Rothstein serves as the section editor for “Currents in Contemporary Ethics.” Professor Rothstein is the Herbert E Boehl Chair of Law and Medicine and the Director of the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky

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